The Disabled Writer

Have you ever moved to a brand new place on a whim? Have you ever seriously considered doing that? Well, if you’re a zebra like I am, sometimes you can feel more than a bit stuck in place.

Millenials Like to Move.

I’m a Younger Millenial. It depends on where exactly you draw the line, but the general consensus is that Millenials stop being Millenials and become Gen Z the year after I was born. But the point is, Millenials like to move. And that’s really great. I’m super happy for my friends and colleagues who I see regularly up and leaving wherever they live to move somewhere else entirely, or spend a matter of months visiting somewhere else.

But I’m stuck. Or at least, that’s what it can feel like. And in a way, I am.

Due to the nature of my ongoing medical care, as well as the fact that I need to be in close proximity to major medical centers, that limits where I can go and for how long. For instance, I’ve always wanted to live somewhere nice and rural. I love the countryside. Lots of open space, plenty of trees, beautiful wildlife, and plenty of goats. I frickin’ love goats.

But that’s just not in the cards for me.

When I used to live in upstate New York for six years, it was a problem. There was a period of about three years where I needed to have a small-scale surgical procedure done over and over, every few weeks, it was a problem. There wasn’t a single doctor anywhere who could perform the procedure. So the surgeon I had been seeing back where I live now (and used to live) had to more or less strong-arm a former colleague of his into doing it. But this doctor was over an hour away from where I lived.

Problems then arose once again when this surgeon moved across state lines. Once again, there was no one who could perform the procedure I needed. And there was no one left to strong-arm into doing it.

Later on, when I finally got my “primary” diagnoses and a treatment plan from a doctor down here, I wasn’t able to get treatment up there. Between a lack of local doctors with the right specialties (who also knew enough to come to the same conclusion as my main specialist, because most doctors aren’t going to order treatment off another doctor’s diagnosis), and the fact that health insurance in this country frickin’ sucks, I wasn’t able to get my infusions.

So, I’m Stuck.

More or less, that’s the case. Sure, there’s some places I could move to if I wanted. Most major cities are going to have access to the medical professionals and facilities I need. But seeing as my stuff can get really weird sometimes, and we still don’t have answers for everything going on with me, I’m probably stuck near one of the top medical centers- somewhere near NYC, Boston, Cleveland, Baltimore, etc.

But then there’s the additional issue of health insurance- what places can I get a job that can a) pay my bills, b) have enough flexibility for my health, c) be something I’m remotely qualified for, and d) offer health insurance benefits? And if Option D isn’t possible, does the state offer an inexpensive enough plan that I can afford, while still offering enough coverage for the several specialists I need, numerous expensive tests I need done multiple times a year, and insanely expensive infusions I need every month?

So that narrows things down a whole lot more. If I had to guess, I’d say Massachusetts and New Jersey have decent state options for me. So realistically, I’m stuck with three options: Boston area, NYC suburbs on the Jersey side, or stay where I am. Maybe if I stretch things a bit, Buffalo.

So What Can We Do?

The answer for that is two-fold: increase medical access to rural and low-income areas, and have insurance be nation-wide rather than state-specific.

People who live in rural and low-income areas have less access to healthcare overall, and the healthcare options they have are more often than not sub-par. Not only that, but the majority of hospital and private medical office closures are in rural and low-income areas. Yes, it’s difficult and expensive to run a medical practice. But it doesn’t have to be.

Healthcare costs in the United States are insanely artificially inflated. And it’s all private health insurance companies’ fault. When these costs are hyperinflated the way they are, it not only costs more to go see a doctor, it costs the doctor or hospital more to get anything done. Have you ever gone to the hospital and saw that the saline bag was $500, even though it costs less than $1 to be produced? This is what I’m talking about.

Currently, options to buy interstate insurance plans exist, but they’re heavily flawed. Only 21 states have introduced legislation to allow it. The Affordable Care Act allowed inter-state health insurance to become a thing, but how the law is written and how states refuse to fully embrace it is an issue.

Health insurance needs to have a federally mandated and enforced option for plans that work across state lines at no additional cost and no lack of coverage for the user. Better yet, we could have a federal health insurance Medicare For All type mandate or at least option, but clearly that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

So, Us Zebras Get Stuck.

We can’t move wherever we want. Any move we do make has to be carefully planned and considered, with considerations for health insurance plans and medical care available.

So let’s do better. Let’s have those federally mandated inter-state options. Let’s get a higher level of medical care available to rural and low-income communities. Let’s make it so us zebras can go where we want. And it’s not something that’ll just benefit us. Rural and low-income communities are more likely have health problems than middle- and upper-class neighborhoods in urban areas and the suburbs. After all, poverty costs money and can lead to all sorts of health issues.

Let’s make a change. We can do better than this. We can decide to not leave the poor and the sick behind for a change. But we have to make that choice together, and actually do something about it.

Until next time.

-Nick

IG: @the_disabled_writer

Facebook: Nick O’Brien, Writer

TikTok: @the_disabled_writer