tired"You look tired."
"You should take some time, you know. Some time to rest."
"You should sleep more."
"You have to take care of yourself."
At the end of the day, I do look tired. Why shouldn't I look tired? I am, after all, working two essentially full-time jobs: I get up at 5am every day to travel from my suburban home into San Francisco, where I put in an eight-hour day before repeating the commute in reverse, and spending the evening writing, editing, and trying to stay on top of my frankly horrifying inbox. When all my must-do items are checked off the list, I collapse on the couch with my cats, and watch mindless television to power down my brain. And then the next day, I do it all over again. On the weekends, I either write like my shoes are on fire, or go to conventions, where I have a lovely time, as long as I don't think too hard about how much catching up I'm going to have to do later.
Why do I do this? Why am I working two jobs, with a massive commute in the middle? It's not because I particularly need the money. I know how to make a pound of hamburger last for a week; it's not pretty, but I can do it. I may like to buy books and toys when the cash is coming in, but I do pretty well with amusing myself on what I have then the cash isn't there. So what's the big deal here?
The big deal is medical insurance. The big deal is what can happen to you when you don't have it. The big deal is that not everyone has friends who can put together an anthology of massively awesome authors to save them from bankruptcy* when they get sick, as people have a natural tendency to do.
Melissa Mia Hall didn't have the same option. She died last week of a treatable medical condition, because she couldn't afford to go to the doctor. She died alone in the night, of something modern medical technology could easily have fixed. And yes, they would have treated her if she'd gone to the emergency room, but she didn't go, because she knew—as the uninsured always learn, as I learned, when I didn't have insurance—that it would be expensive, and she couldn't afford to risk losing everything.
My mother doesn't have medical insurance. Neither does my youngest sister. I work two jobs because I need to have medical insurance, and because I live in honest fear of the day Rachel calls to tell me that Mom was having pain and didn't say anything, because she knew it would be expensive. And if that sounds overly dramatic, well. Take a look at either of the examples listed above. One woman who sought medical care and would have lost everything without her friends stepping in; one woman who chose to die rather than gamble with the loss of everything she'd worked for.
And that's why I look tired, and why I wish people would stop telling me how tired I look. I know how tired I look. I just don't see where I have any other choice.
(*If you missed this: Ravens in the Library was an anthology project organized to pay the medical bills of SJ "Sooj" Tucker when she got hit out of the blue by an illness that required serious hospital care. You can see my original post on the matter here. Without that book, Sooj would have been in a lot of financial trouble. I think that book saved her life as lived, even as the hospital saved her life as living.)
February 1 2011, 21:44:28 UTC 6 years ago
Apart from counselling services I've had to pay for all of them at one time or another (prescription costs and vision care being on-going) ... and sometimes I've had to choose between medication and other things I needed. Even without a wage-earner in the house (currently) we still have to pay for all of these things because we saved hard to own our own home - so we have 'too much money' to get any help.
My family is lucky - we live in a country where you can see a doctor for free, and get life-saving treatment at no cost (to you), unlike both of the examples Seanan gave - but with an aging population, and more and more possible medical interventions, the National Health Service ('free health care from the cradle to the grave') is becoming a structure we can't afford to maintain - and that terrifies me!
I'd like to see basic and lifesaving health care free for all at the point of use ... but you'd never get agreement on what constituted BASIC health care (or lifesaving care ... and who would pay for the stuff that wasn't considered basic?
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February 2 2011, 11:41:00 UTC 6 years ago
So yes, one has to pay for some things - as a basically healthy, earning adult I pay for my eye tests and glasses (actually, the law requires my employer to pay for my eye tests). I don't have an NHS dentist, but I could have if I wanted. But those drugs I took lost year that cost several thousand pounds cost me £21.30 (three prescriptions over six months). In the US, the co-payment would have been a hell of a lot more than that. Mental health care is a bit of a poor relation, but some counselling and therapy is available. What isn't available is long-term talking therapy.
February 3 2011, 05:49:48 UTC 6 years ago
February 2 2011, 20:35:15 UTC 6 years ago
Drugs which are not NHS approved can be charged at the full price - they tend to be experimental or only recently developed though, e.g. some cancer drugs.
And dental charges are capped (there is a maximum you can be required to pay for your treatment) for treatments available on the NHS. But not everything you might want/need is available on the NHS ...
I think my point was that not everything is free (which is a perception people outside the UK often have) and some things like basic dental care and basic eye care are only free for the poor and the elderly (and children under 16).
We're much better off than a lot of people in the world, but the NHS system could maybe do with an overhaul ... a sympathetic overhaul, not a hatchet job!
February 3 2011, 05:48:49 UTC 6 years ago
Yes, the NHS needs an overhaul; no, it's not perfect. But I honestly think most British people don't appreciate how bloody good we actually have it because they haven't experienced the alternatives.
February 16 2011, 16:52:45 UTC 6 years ago