HEALTCHARE, a thread:

I started today in the emergency room (I'm fine). The amount of blood made it seem worse than it was. My COVID-era ER experience was different than past ones. I was placed in isolation, where people mostly communicated with me via phone and (1/7)

suited in full PPE before coming in the room. Vitals were taken. Swabs collected. I downed a couple blue pills for pain. As I waited for the bleeding to subside, the phone rang. A pleasant woman on the other line asked, "how will you be taking care of this today?" (2/7)

I squeaked out my credit card number through a swollen throat.

I'm a lucky one. I have insurance and can cover a co-pay. Far too many people don't seek the care they need because the thought of the pleasant voice of the billing office on the other line is debilitating. (3/7)

What about people like my mom for whom a cancer diagnosis threatens bankruptcy? Or my boss who was made to pay a fee while they wheeled his dad back for his first chemo treatment? What about people who have to choose between filling a prescription and food on the table? (4/7)

Why are we still punishing people for getting sick? Making healthcare a perk of employment alongside discounted movie tickets or mileage expenses? Why are we, a nation with wealth to spare, still robbing those in need to boost insurance CEO bonuses? (5/7)

Our healthcare system, the one that asks "how are you going to take care of this today?" as if you've just put a shiny new MacBook into your cart, is barbaric. Illness should not be a financial death knell. And we should be incentivizing care, not punishing the sick. (6/7)

The system is unsustainable, inhumane, leaves us woefully unprepared for a crisis, and puts executive profits over people.

In a country desperate to prove its greatness, it's past time to decouple healthcare from employment and provide it to ALL as a right. (7/7)