Free Healthcare and the Homeless
I want to talk to you about what free healthcare would mean for the homeless. And I want to use my experience to explain it, because having a bacterial infection really taught me the value of having access to free healthcare. Some of you would frown on me using my sickness to push my agenda, but then you have to consider that my agenda is to see all people happy and healthy. I want all decent people to do well. I don't like seeing people suffer. This is my agenda.
So here's my story:
It's been a long few days, and the heat has been unbearable. It gets a little colder at night, though not by much, and I'd been leaving the door open to try to stay somewhat cool while I slept. I'd still often wake up way too hot the next day and having to drink a lot of liquid to cool myself down.
One night, I was feeling grateful, because the air turned very cold, and I was glad for the sudden chill to cool me off. I slept soundly and woke up refreshed and cool. Unfortunately I had a sore throat. I cursed my luck and tried to keep healthy, trying to thwart off my "cold" symptoms. Little did I know, this was more than a cold.
I spent sometime around 2 weeks, sleeping fitfully during the day and night at odd hours, my nose running nonstop, my throat growing more painful and swollen each day. At first I could only eat soft foods, but I could still drink all the water I needed.And then I couldn't eat. And the only thing I could drink was apple juice. I had a cough and my asthma blew up more times than I could say. I felt that I would go mad with sickness and pain.
When the time came where I hadn't eaten anything for 2 days except half of a pudding cup, and I could no longer drink because my throat had gotten so sore and swollen, I decided it was time for a check-up. I called a friend and had him take me to the doctor. They tested me for strep and mono, which both came back negative. What they did discover was a bacterial infection... which I had thought was a REALLY bad cold. I got my prescriptions, waited impatiently as they got filled, and got home.
I swallowed the pills down immediately, though they made me gag and the pain made tears come to my eyes. They didn't go down easy. It took half a dozen swallows to get those suckers down. Then I forced what I could of more pudding. It was the worst feeling, trying to force delicious food through pain. I managed to do what I needed and then went to the couch and promptly passed out.
Today is only a day later. My throat is no longer swollen and my nose is trying, slowly to heal up. Ad I thought this was just a bad cold. I'm so grateful that the medicine worked so fast. It reminded me of parents who tell their kids, "Don't leave the window open all night. You'll catch your death of cold." For me, it nearly did.
"That's great," You say, "But what does any of this have to do with homeless people and free healthcare?" Well, after going through what I went through, this is how I began to think about it. I had the choice to shut my window. Homeless people don't get that choice.
Homeless people have to deal with all day heat and all night cold. And the effects that has on the body are numerous, and sometimes deadly. I used to get confused if I saw a young homeless person found dead on the streets. But imagine this:
Imagine a 17 year old boy, let's say he ran away from an abusive home, and decided to make his own way. He ends up on the streets, never having been homeless before. He begs for food all day and sleeps in alleys and hidden places at night. This isn't the life he'd hoped for but he figured if he tried hard enough, he could still get somewhere on his own.
The year is approaching fall, and the boy's clothes have gotten old and dirty. He's still begging for food and sleeping outside. He's forgotten his purpose in his need to live. One night, after a few excruciatingly hot days where he was badly sunburned from begging in the daytime, he curls up in his box, which holds a few meager possessions he got over his time on the streets, and he tries to sleep, past the pain and the heat in his body. He cries because of his fate, exchanging one abusive life for another. And yet, he knows he cannot go home, or he would be beaten all over again.
The air grows cool, and the boy passes out from exhaustion. But it gets colder and colder outside. The boy begins to shiver. He doesn't have enough blankets to keep warm in that chill. He adds his spare sweater onto his clothes, but still he's just so cold. He can't go inside because nothing will be open at this hour. So he tries to wait out the night, the cold seeping to his bones.
A few days later, the boy is begging for money, for medicine. He can't get healthcare because he doesn't have an address. But he's hoping cough medicine will make him better. He doesn't get much money that day. People have heard of addicts using cough medicine for a high. They don't believe him. He uses what he has that night to buy a meal.
Next day, he tries again. He's looking pretty sick, and coughing. He makes almost nothing. People don't go near him, they don't want his illness. The avoid him like he has the plague. There's not enough for food. He goes to bed that night hungry.
The following day, the boy can't get up. He's so sick, he's got no energy, and the lack of food and drink made his sickness worse. He could go to the emergency room but they insisted he had to pay his dues before he could be seen again. He didn't make that much money. He stays in his box, trying to stay warm as the fevers take him. In a few days, a couple homeless guys who knew him start looking for him. He died from his sickness because he couldn't get treated.
The Meat of the Story:
The point behind the scenario I wrote, as dark, and sad as it may be, is that it's real. And it happens to homeless people everyday. Not all are young, or running away from something. But homeless die all the time from easily treatable causes like flu or diabetes or other things most of us don't consider to be difficult to treat. We take our health for granted. We don't consider that some can't.
If any homeless person had gotten the same bug that I had these past 2 weeks, it would likely have killed the person, because without proper medicine, it only gets worse until it's too late. This is why having free healthcare available to all is so important. Without access to health, homeless lives are just ticking down to the first time they get sick. And in the life they have to live, that's pretty easy to do.
If you've read down to this part, I want to let you know I appreciate your interest, and your concern is warming to me. I think about the homeless population quite frequently. I used to be among them. That life is harder than most people can stand, and homeless numbers are rising everyday, with the struggle for jobs that can cover means, and the government's lack of interest to fix any of the core issues involving struggling singles and families.
