Another (personal) reason we desperately need MORE health care reform

[Ibby]

I'm a college student struggling with nearly-crippling depression, social anxiety, and trans* health care issues.
I'm still covered under my parents' Tricare coverage, because my father is a retired Air Force veteran and a current employee of the Department of Defense... and yet, technically, I'm uninsured at the moment because I need to marshal a BUNCH of forms to prove I'm a full-time student (which, yes, I am), to reinstate my Tricare coverage.

But I'm depressed and anxious enough to make documenting my coverage and reinstating my coverage a perilous and problematic venture. Therefore, I had to prioritize by filling my HRT out-of-pocket while being unable to finance my anxiety, insomnia, ADHD, and depression treatments out-of-pocket.

Which leaves me so depressed and anxious that it's difficult to marshal the resources necessary to reinstate my coverage and leave me in a medically-treated state where I'm more capable of doing my paperwork in a timely fashion, because I'm flat-out terrified to actually admit all my issues in a way that gets me the prescription coverage that leaves me able to deal with all the issues facing my education.

I'm currently at risk of losing all my medical benefits, because I am not currently able to have all my medical issues treated.

I am far from the only American affected by a systemic failure to effectively treat mental illness and personal issues in a way that leaves Americans like me able to remedy the effects of my health issues.

And yet, I have been, for years, a very effective member of the State Department, holding a security clearance, and furthering the gains of our diplomatic missions overseas. I'm not a fantastic academic, but i am a highly effective employee of the federal government who has proven my worth as a $15-an-hour employee. But my untreated mental issues have left me in a position where I have trouble being able to gain the bachelor's degree I need to re-join the State Department as an effective Officer. Not because I've failed any threshold, but simply because my Bachelor's degree has been delayed by my anxiety and depression.

With nationalized or otherwise guaranteed health care, I would be able to access the care I need to reinstate my earned Tricare benefits. Without, I'm on the path to lose my family-earned health care coverage and my parental financial support I need to complete my degree and earn health care independently by having a productive job with the State Department.

And I can't possibly be the only one.


It's a big deal for me to be laying my health care issues publicly on the line like this. It really is.
In a just world I wouldn't need to. I would already have unquestioned coverage for my crippling issues that would have me treated, and able to become the productive member of society I plan and want to be.

Why do Republicans think that's something I shouldn't have, and a reason for me to become a homeless, destitute, uneducated, sick person, unable to gain the sort of societal improvement they say they want to see from the "lower classes"? If being a good candidate for the Foreign Service is something that should only be available to the financially secure and luckily healthy, why should we trust our foreign OR civil service to be an effective force for the good of the American people?