Another Bad Idea (Political Version)

I haven't really disguised my political beliefs in the past, you may have already gathered I lean to the lefty side, but I try to keep the really polarizing and un-fun stuff out of here. It's a club, we like not being too serious. But right now, with a special election in Massachusetts meaning potentially very bad things for a concern of mine, I have to vent a little. It's kind of useless, but I have no choice. In retrospect, I'm putting this behind a cut, because srsly. This thing would clutter up the front page somethin' fierce.

At 13 I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. I'd previously been considered as having ADD, but that didn't quite encapsulate the weird stuff my brain was doing. I'm basically just explaining this to make clear that I'm not one of those people who self-diagnosed myself with the syndrome to explain my lack of social skills.

It's a condition I've more or less made my peace with, and I've got it under control with medication. The problem is that it also makes me uninsurable. When I became ineligible for my family's insurance, and then graduated and became ineligible for student insurance, I decided to apply on my own. I was rejected, because Asperger's is a pre-existing condition. I was screwed.

Now, the current health bill is nowhere near perfect. But one thing it does do is make it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. This is in both versions that have been passed so far, it'll almost certainly be in any final version. So I kind of need this. I can afford to pay, I just need to be allowed to give them my money so I can not worry about being in an accident and paying off medical bills very slowly for the rest of my life.

The GOP, for whatever reason, has continually refused to put this very simple clause in any alternate health care bill they've proposed. I can't have the slightest confidence that Scott Brown or anyone in that party cares about people like me- or rather, if they do, the whips have convinced them that unity in opposition is more important. I admire the discipline, but guys, seriously.

So there's the chance this could be killed after all, thanks to a Mass. special election that, as a Missourian, I didn't have the slightest say in. I do appreciate that the Democratic candidate ran the worst campaign possible and all, but...

I'm through equivocating. A majority of people now apparently don't care about giving people like me a chance at health care, and that apparently includes a majority of voters in Massachusetts. I don't care how badly this bill was presented or what your utopian ideal is, I can't afford for you to say "Let's start over and do it right this time", I need the ability to buy insurance like yesterday. If you want this bill to die, you're saying I don't matter. So, in other words, go. Leave. Get out. Don't want your business. I can no longer abide the company of people who think that it's okay to let the status quo continue, whether it's because they want single payer instead (and that would be great, but seriously, how long am I supposed to hold out?), or they just think of themselves as Randian supermen.

I've got the free clinics for now, am volunteering in hopes of eventually landing a job that would provide benefits, I've written my representative, I'm looking at homes in countries that aren't quite so fucked in this department, I can hold out. Other people with the same pesky conditions don't have my support network. We can't let this end for them. This is going to be our last shot at the problem for a while, in all likelihood. We make it, or people continue to suffer.

And because you've been good and patient enough to at least scroll down, here's Julia Sawalha to lighten the mood:


Goodnight, will try not to do this again.