Before You Vote, Read This.

Health insurance is the one issue that affects us all, and it’s organized crime.

Elizabeth Grey
8 min readNov 2, 2022

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Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

The midterms are Tuesday, and before you go vote, I want to share an experience I had this month. Because as we fuss at each other about every other thing, we are being robbed blind and driven crazy by the same thing.

All of us.

It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity; and it’s not our salaries, it’s our health insurance. How many of you stay in your jobs not out of love, not even for money, but for your benefits?

My plea to every voter is to think about their healthcare before they walk into their polling station.

No matter if you are for or against abortion, a book burner or a book learner, an atheist or supporter of prayer in schools, there is indeed one issue in American politics that unites us all: the abysmal state of our healthcare system. And while we are busy fighting amongst ourselves, healthcare CEOs are depositing their latest bonus check.

We need to stop being such suckers. After the week I’ve had, I am no longer calling health insurance anything other than organized crime. There is no bigger scam perpetuated on American voters.

Here’s how I’ve spent two weeks:

I get injections to manage my chronic back pain. I needed an epidural recently because my pain level has gotten worse. I asked my pain management doctor to schedule one, and was told my insurance required an office visit first.

I am bullet pointing the following events to prevent this from turning into a ten-thousand-word essay. You’ll be able to fill in the blanks. We all go through some version of this insanity.

-I make appointment with the doctor for October 12th. (Co-pay $50)

-Doctor tells me I need a new MRI first. She sends an approval request to my insurance for both MRI and epidural.

-I get approval for procedure. I get approval for MRI.

-Imaging place calls me to make an appointment. I make appointment.

-I get a notification from imaging facility to complete paperwork for MRI, and a notice that I will owe just over $740.00 at time of service.

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