Today I was told that health insurance is unnecessary, that the doctor should just charge us for what we use. It should only be for catastrophes, not ongoing or recurring treatments.

If someone is too sick to work, or elderly, or born into a poor family, “oh well,” they said — we are all born into a different lot in life.

Modern-day healthcare, they said, is just basically the same as government handouts.

If someone is too sick to work, or they’re born with cancer or develop, say, ALS in their 20’s, or they’re simply old … they just have to *deal with it* if they can’t afford medical treatments or doctor visits.

And those of us with pre-existing conditions? Ah, we are the problem.

We, and our health issues that we didn’t cause or wish for or bring upon ourselves, are why insurance premiums are so high, and why healthcare is so expensive.

Protecting us by making sure we with pre-existing conditions have health insurance is preposterous. Protecting us by making sure our medical problems don’t bankrupt us is ridiculous. We should just live with it. Just pay our way. Sick kid? Sick grandma? Doesn’t matter your age or your socioeconomic situation. Basically get over it and find a way to pay — or don’t, and suffer.

Pay no mind to the fact that anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of Americans live with a pre-existing condition. I mean, just never mind that!

Sigh.

This isn’t political to me. It isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a human issue. This is my life and the lives of millions of others.

RA (only one of the medical conditions I have,) is second only to cancer in terms of expense to treat. I’ve been on meds that cost anywhere from $11,000-$30,000 PER TREATMENT. And that’s one med, not even considering the others I may be simultaneously taking.

I’ve had years where I’ve been in the ER close to 20x, admitted to the hospital multiple times in a year, had surgeries and biopsies multiple times in a year, etc. I’ve had months on end of 3, 4, maybe 5 doctor appointments per week. Plus countless blood tests, MRIs, CT scans, etc.

But according to these people, I don’t need health insurance. After all, I’m the problem. I should just deal with being sick because we all get different lots in life. I should not try to treat my illnesses and try to have the best, most normal and productive life possible, well, not unless I can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.

I and others like me should just be sick or hurting every day. Or not. Heck, we should probably just shrivel up and die by these people’s logic. (Or lack thereof.) Why bother trying to be healthy or contribute to society? We got a crappy hand dealt to us and so we must suffer the consequences. We are the weakest link.

If you want to know why I am so public about my health journey and why I do what I do, this is why. The cruelty and ignorance that sick and disabled people face is unfathomable. You wouldn’t believe half the stuff I see and hear and go through, even if I told you.

And I’m one of the lucky ones: the trolling and bullying I face is relatively minimal these days. I’ve always had good health coverage, thank God. I am not living in poverty, thank God. I still have a pretty fantastic and relatively normal life despite my illnesses. I’m blessed. But many folks are not so blessed. And I speak out for them. I stand up for them. I share my journey with them and for them.

And for people who think like those guys I mentioned above, I pray. I pray for them because I cannot imagine so soullessly going through life without empathy or compassion for others. It must be a lonely, cold existence. And if these guys have so much money that spending $100,000+ per year for life on out-of-pocket medical expenses is no big deal, then I ask that they help someone else out with medical bills or donate to a health charity. Unless, of course, charitable endeavors are handouts, too.