Some things are going on in my karate life; things that involved a meeting last week. In a nutshell, many of my training partners have been "ghost" as of late and, in an effort to get everyone back and on the same page, we went around the room and everyone got a chance to say what had been keeping them away.
One of my dojo sisters is working like a rant mule developing a business - so much so that she has been away from training since mid-summer. Always into wholistic approaches to life, energy and illness, she said she's been away so she can afford health insurance. She needs it because she's been told that the spot on her nose looks like it could be something not good. She can't even go to the doctor now because if she is diagnosed with skin cancer, it would become a pre-existing condition and would not be covered by her new insurance company. So she's very afraid - because it could be something bad but because if it is, she may not be able to afford to get treated.
Cancer absolutely sucks - but that this is actually someone's reality is ridiculous. Honestly, what kind of sense does it make to have your health insurance not cover you when you need it? To keep that from happening, she is working herself silly (so she cazn afford to actually get insurance) and worrying lots - which probably will cause harm (it's been proven that stress weakens the immune system) and that simply shouldn't be.
Our system of care is severely broken in this country. The Affordable Care Act was designed to address this, but the pre-existing conditions part doesn't fully go into effect until 2014, which is too late to help my dojo sister.
What kind of craziness...?
