One of my best childhood friends, who was more like a brother to me, struggled with bipolar disorder and depression and possibly schizophrenia. We grew up in an area with a lack of resources to help people struggling with mental health in the community.
He started working for a privately owned business that specialized in fire and flood damage reconstruction. They worked him to the bone. I'm talking 50+ work weeks that didn't pay enough and didn't really offer company sponsored insurance due some loopholes they figured out in their hiring process. Paid time off was not a thing for him. He had a disabled father to help support on his small income.
We knew he was struggling with his mental health but he didn't have the time or energy to seek out whatever might have been available, effectively on his own. None of knew that he was off his medication due to the high cost. He fell into a depression and committed suicide after he was written up for calling out for two days without a doctor's note. He's gone forever. I really believe that had he been able to get his medication at a reasonable cost, had he been provided health insurance, had his boss showed him compassion and understanding, he would be alive right now. He was his father's only child, his father committed suicide about a year after him because he didn't want to live without his son. His boss profited from my friend's physical labor but refused to provide for his employees.
My cousin died about two years ago because she was rationing her insulin in order to save money. She wasn't even 40. Her daughter is without a mother and my aunt and uncle had to bury their own child.
I'm just angry at the whole system. I'm so angry that they're just statistics now. I wish their cause of death could be labeled as “victims of the American healthcare system”. They were wonderful humans with people who cared about them. They had hobbies and dreams and personality quirks just like anyone. I miss them both so much.
After my friend died I remember seeing some ” how it's made” type episode of something…anyway, it was about how medicine is made and distributed. I remember watching as this waterfall of pills tumbled down some chute. I remember thinking that each pill making up that waterfall most cost, what, pennies? Pennies to make. There had to be a similar waterfall somewhere filled with the medication that would have saved my friend's life. Would have helped manage his symptoms. Was his monetary value in this world really worth less than a handful of pills?
My friend and my cousin were just human sacrifices in this rigged game. Neither of them should have died simply because they couldn't afford their life saving medicine. Why can't we just, as a country, decide that nobody should die because they can't afford health insurance?