Healthcare is a Human Right

But not in the United States

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

When I divorced after 20 years of marriage, I lost my health insurance. For those who don’t live in the “capitalism-run-amok” U.S. of A., health insurance is something that you have to purchase (either you or your employer pays monthly premiums) to help pay for any kind of medical care — prescriptions, ambulances, Emergency Room visits, annual check-ups, dental care, hospitalizations, psychiatric care, etc.

For many years, those healthcare premiums were paid by employers, and considered a “benefit.” Today only 49% of employers in the US offer any kind of group health insurance. If you are one of those fortunate 49%, you are still required to pay a percentage of the cost of any healthcare your receive; this is called your co-pay. Sometimes payment isn’t supplied at all, until you reach your insurance plan’s deductible. The deductible is determined by how much you or your employer pays for the monthly premium.

When I lost my health insurance coverage after my divorce, I could not find employment that offered healthcare benefits (remember, more than half of US companies offer no healthcare insurance). That means that any healthcare I received (prescriptions, blood tests, whatever) would be fully billable to me. Since we have a for-profit system, prescriptions and medical treatment cost far more in the…