Seven million Americans making more than 150 percent of the federal poverty line—$31,000 for a family of three—dropped below that line if medical expenses were subtracted from their income. That meant that these families spent something like a third or more of all their income on health care. Of the 7 million, 4 million found their post-health-care income reduced below 50 percent of the poverty line, meaning they spent about two-thirds of their total income on health care.
This quote was taken from the Atlantic. 7 million people were pushed below the poverty line because of medical costs in 2019.
All it takes is one emergency. One emergency can send a family straight to the bottom. That one moment, which was beyond our control, would start a downward spiral that many people are never able to pull themselves out of. There is the cost of the emergency room or doctor visit, the cost of the procedure (since a lot of doctors are paid separately), the cost of the prescriptions, the lost pay from days off work, parking in the parking garage or extra bus fair, meals out of the home, any extra equipment or supplies (like special chairs or bandages and tape), child care, and it just goes on and on. A firmly middle class family can easily be reduced to poverty by medical bills.
Here are the things people who don't want to help say:
You should have saved up for that- right, we saved up multiple thousands of dollars on our minimum wage income and what we were able to save won't even begin to cover the cost
Why don't you have insurance?- our employer doesn't provide it and there are very few non-elderly adults that qualify for state medical help
If you don't have the money, don't get it treated.- soooo, you'd prefer we went on disability maybe? or become homeless?
By helping everyone have access to medical care, we can reduce the dependence on other government programs. If all those families who were ruined by medical debt and are now living on government help had access to affordable, adequate medical care, they would have been able to remain independent and have no need for other assistance programs. Health care for everyone could revamp how the government assistance programs work and enable so many people to provide for themselves. This seems like a no-brainer to me, it seems counter-intuitive to refuse people medical care they can afford, then villianize them for needing help to cover their medical needs.
I know that there are many people who feel that everyone should be responsible for themselves and that we shouldn’t have to help each other, but I think that medical costs should be the exception to that thought.
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