HEALTHCARE IN THE UNITED STATES

ACCESS ISSUES IN HEALTH CARE

First Person Perspective

Mr. J., M.A., is the Deputy Head for the Center for German-American Educational History

Figure 8.1: First Person Perspective

Source: Original Work

Attribution: Deanna Howe

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

In college, I lost health insurance coverage through my parents—this was before the Obama-era mandate which allowed dependents to stay on their parent’s health insurance coverage until they turned 26. Like a lot of college students, I gambled and went without health insurance, thinking that being young and healthy, I could spare the expense. I avoided going to the doctor and dentist for checkups, fearing the costs. I also would try to tough out illnesses, which ended up causing me to go to urgent care for a bronchial infection—something I could have avoided had I been able to go to the doctor without worry.

Still thinking I could manage on my own, life had other plans and I got

in a serious car accident. My car was totaled and, because it had flipped over, paramedics forced me to take an ambulance ride to the nearest hospital. After running tests, the doctors determined that I was fine. Although I was very lucky to walk away from the accident with nothing more than a sore back, my lack of health insurance coverage impacted me negatively. Although my car insurance provider covered the hospital visit, it refused to cover my ambulance ride. This ended up costing me over $1,000, and I was soon dealing with aggressive debt collectors. The worst part about my story is knowing that this ambulance ride was relatively

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