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With Health Care at These Costs, It’s Cheaper to Die
I used to be on top of my health. Now, it’s urgent care or nothing at all.
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I was not raised to be one of those Black men who avoid the doctor at all costs. My mama, a nurse, made certain that whatever the health care equivalent of “nails done, hair done, everything did” was, we had it.
The names of all of the specialists escape me, but I saw plenty of them and well before high school ended. Of the various problems, the one constant involved my ears — I have been told repeatedly that I have an incredibly thin ear canal. As a result of that, every few years, I get an excruciatingly painful ear infection that always, always, always forces me to take a trip to an ear, nose, and throat doctor. Around 16 or so, I was required to have some operation that sought to remove ear wax stuck to some kind of bone in my ear.
I swear I am not a dirty, dusty peasant. I also know that Q-tips only worsen such a situation. It’s not that I am forgetting to wash every part of my body. I’m not — never mind. I have a condition! I can’t help the ear canals I was born with the same way I can’t alter the fact that my ears are slightly too big for my peanut head.
But even when I was disgusting myself while seeking medical care, I always had a relatively good experience with doctors. I had no reason to fear them. I never had anxiety about a doctor’s trip, given that it had been my experience that if something went wrong, it would get taken care of. It might hurt like hell along the way, but eventually, I’d be all right. I just needed to make sure to go when a situation called for it.
We may have wanted for some things, but not our health.
My mom had good insurance, but in recalling all of the doctor’s visits through the years, I imagine that if her health insurance had not been so good, I would have been an even more expensive little problem. My mom changed her insurance by the time I graduated from college in order for me to stay on her plan until I was 25. She knew her sick-ass child might need it.
