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Brain injury doesn’t discriminate. It is an issue that cuts across social barriers: all political, religious, and socio-economic divisions. I want to reach everyone I can, regardless of these divisions. This is why I make a concerted effort to keep issues such as politics or religion out of my writing. Not everyone will have the same opinions on a lot of issues, but liberal or conservative, republican or democrat, this is an issue that can affect any one of us.
Last week I posted a blog entry on insurance companies and how they care for brain injury survivors and how they handle rehabilitation. I wrote and rewrote the piece, struggling not to vilify the companies. This paranoia that they were "out to get me" was a figment of my imagination – it had to be. After all, our fight with them was a nightmare and I was clearly still upset. I wanted give as rational and objective a view as I could and not let anger or irrational fear cloud my judgment.
Days later the senate published a report affirming both my fears and anger.
“Health insurers have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.” These companies will use any means necessary to avoid responsibility. Insurance companies aren’t simply like an organized crime ring offering money for protection – they are worse. Clients and families coping with brain injury make an easy mark, but insurers do this for any potentially costly claim. We are all in this together.
I do not want to get up on a soapbox or turn this into a political blog, but it seems to me that these committee findings indicate a much larger problem. The insurance companies treatment of initial therapy is terrible, but long-term care for survivors is as bad or worse.
I don’t have insurance. I haven’t since I graduated university. Along with 50-80% of all brain injury survivors, I am unemployed. I have not have a 9-5 job with insurance benefits in my life and it drives my mother to distraction.
With the overwhelming number of survivors who require long-term care or meds to function in society these figures are quite disturbing. Even if survivors are employed or have money to get insurance brain injury gives the companies a cornucopia of reasons to deny coverage.
The Declaration of Independence states that all men are born with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Governments are there to secure these rights and protect its citizens. I believe that a right to basic health care falls into that category. Furthermore I firmly believe that the government has a duty to protect its citizens against opportunistic insurance companies.
Regardless of whether you are for or against universal health care, something needs to change. Survivors unable to get or hold jobs still need therapy, medication, and assistance. If they can get the right care then they will have greater improvements and can help society and help others. After all, we are all in this together.
As I mentioned, I am working to organize an NGO to help survivors toward fuller recoveries but I cannot do it alone. If you have ideas, suggestions, or would like to help be a part of this please contact me.
