In the Physical Wellness post that came out on Monday, routine health check-ups came up as a way of looking after your own physical wellness, and I mentioned that not a lot of people have health insurance to help them pay for doctor visits. I wanted to get into more detail about that. I know I’m only three posts in but you might have noticed that I don’t like to write too much underneath the infographics. That’s not the case today and this post is going to be longer than usual because I had more to talk about when it comes to answering the question of where somebody who’s uninsured accesses healthcare. Can someone who’s uninsured even have access to health care? The answer is yes.
First, I’d like to show you what a sliding scale looks like. I mentioned it in the infographic as a payment option Community Health Clinics have, and it’s based on income.
Secondly, I also wanted to share with you this website that helps you find clinics that have sliding scale payment plans in any State.
https://www.needymeds.org/medical-clinics
Third, I’d like to explain the difference between someone who’s uninsured versus someone who’s under-insured. Someone who’s uninsured doesn’t have health insurance at all. Someone who’s under-insured has health insurance, but their insurance doesn’t cover much and what they pay out of pocket winds up being expensive. Even with health insurance there’s out of pocket expenses, but the point of insurance is to help with that.
Lastly, offense is the best defense (so I’ve heard but I don’t actually know what sport this applies to. Football? All of them? Anyway,) the same goes for your health. Looking after our physical wellness is proactively doing what we can to keep diseases away. For example, drinking water, eating fiber, doing cardio to improve our cardiovascular health, and keep our blood pressure within a reasonable range. Weight-bearing exercises that increase bone density so we can use our bones longer and delay the inevitable effects aging has on bones. Building muscle so that it’s harder for fat to accumulate in excess overtime and bring with it complications associated with obesity such as stroke, diabetes, high blood pressure etc.
Frequent medical checkups is another way to be on the offensive. It’s important for you to keep up with your physicals, dental check-ups (even if you hate going to the dentist), vaccines, etc. Don’t let seeking healthcare fall to the wayside because you don’t have health insurance. Not having health insurance doesn’t necessarily mean you’re cut off from accessing healthcare because you’re not. The only difference between somebody who has health insurance and somebody who doesn’t, is that the person who doesn’t has to do a a shit ton of research figuring out how to go about getting healthcare, and then how to pay for that healthcare.
