In truth it does… I am in the process of trying to get health insurance on my own. My job doesn’t have enough employees who need health care for us to get into a program and I make too much for the cheap stuff thru the state and UNM (University of New Mexico Health Care Systems) so, I am working towards getting it on my own. With the help of my parents.

I applied and got a letter asking for the last two years records. I was working on obligining that when I received another letter stating I needed the five years and I had to now get a complete physical exam by a Medical Doctor – MD for short – before they will even continue trying to process my application. This includes having to go for a pap smear. Do they even have a clue how much money they are asking me to put out… wait not me, me and my parents.

Here is a little math: Basic exam – $75 – 150 (right out the pocket when I go in), Blood work – to be billed, generally around $50 to $150 per test and I have to get 4, pap smear – $150 at the time of the exam and then I will be billed for the rest which may end up being up to $400 bucks more. So low end we are looking at $425 if I am lucky. Up to… $1,150 if they bill like they normally do. All this to be charged $180 a month to be able to go to the doctors if I get sick.

And this is all in the hopes that they MAY accept me without anything popping up like diabetes, a positive pap smear or anything else they can say – oh we won’t cover that but we will give you insurance because your diabetes is a preexisting condition or your cancer is a preexisting condition. That’s if I am unlucky. If I am lucky, everything will be fine. But we will see. I have had a positive pap in the past – so any of those may automatically be not covered because I may end up having cancer one day and that is too much a liability for them… who has money then someone like me who can is just trying to pay her mortgage each month and hoping I will be lucky enough to get health insurance with no strings attached.

So, why have I gone so long without health care? This is why… its a pain in the ass and an even bigger pain in the wallet. And I am tired of having to go to my parents for help financially to event get what some consider the basics in life like health insurance. I can’t afford it on my own. I could… if I didn’t own the house.

Maybe its time to just sell it? Not bother with any more of the stress that comes with it, reduce my cost of living by 50% and just move into an apartment again. I hate apartments but I don’t know what else to do. I can’t handle getting another job. I don’t want to spend all my time working again – I did that before and I had two nervous breakdowns by the time I was 30 years old. I am 32, will be 33 in two days… I am tired of not being right with the world and everything being out of wack. I am tired of people in politics thinking that getting a national health care program for those of us who don’t have any choices but to spend money we don’t have… not everyone in the world. But I mean if they want to tax our health care already why not give something to the people who need it.

And I wonder why my dinner last night was cake and booze…