tigertail in new york

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

I've moved from a country with free healthcare for all (save medicare being destroyed by the current government - vote to ensure its survival people!) to a country where people can be turned away from medical services if they have no health insurance, and you hear stories of people digging bullets out of themselves rather than pay to go to hospital.

I hadn't been feeling the best for a couple of months, and wasn't really sure how to go about going to the doctor. I'd heard horror stories of hundreds of dollars for a basic check up, and whenever I tried to investigate clinics for people with no health insurance, the requirements to prove lack of serious income were always hard for me, given that I'd only been here a while and didn't get paid a salary.

I finally found a clinic not too far away that only required I bring in the documents I had. The entire visit took 4 hours, but the doctors were great, I walked out of there feeling better and the whole thing was free. They have a dentist, general healthcare, women's health services, community outreach programs and much more. Not all of it will be free, even to those of us making very little money a month, but there are also people to help you sign up for government sponsored health insurance for lower-income earners and to give you advice on where else you can go to get help. Glad to know that being not so well off has some benefits!

I was really glad to know that such a clinic existed. I'm lucky - if I went home tomorrow I'd be able to go to the doctor for free, or if my freelance work suddenly picked up dramatically I could join the freelancers union and get health insurance, or if I suddenly landed a well-paid permanent job with health benefits (well, we can all live in hope, can't we?) then I'd be in a better position to get all sorts of health things covered (like a massage for my sore shoulders, acupuncture etc etc.) But for some people, none of those things are ever going to be an option, and when it doesn't look like the US is going to introduce universal healthcare anytime soon, you've got to be able to have services that help support those who need it.

A friend of mine suddenly had heart palpitations the other day from a supplement he was taking. He went straight to the emergency room at the hospital. It was a public holiday here, and he has no health insurance, because, like me, he works freelance at the lower end of the scale, and can't afford it. He still hasn't seen the bill, but he's worried about how much it's going to be... I'm just grateful he's ok, and that I haven't ended up in that situation.

Posted by Ness on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 12:03 AM | Permalink