About Me

My photo
Alpha Diallo is a graduate from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and a human rights lawyer based in Chicago. He travels around the world to advocate human rights values because he believes that respect for human rights can make the World a better place. He pictures the World as a village and countries as neighbors, and they should coexist in peace, since there is only one race, the human race, and one religion, love. When he does not travel, he sits Under the Human Rights Tree (UTHRT) to write and share human rights stories with the World so he can open a new gate of legal knowledge to a new audience.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

UTHRT: THE RIGHT TO HEALTH IN AMERICA!

PART I: The Individual Experience Within a Health Insurance System.

In 2013, I lost my job not because I failed to fulfill my duties or was unprofessional. I lost it for standing up for my rights. My friends' attitudes and views on the matter were diverse. Some stopped being my friend, seeing a jobless person as a source of reliance. Others told me, “Sometimes, you just have to let it go,”, meaning I should give up my rights and let them abuse me. Still others said that "life is unfair." My response was that I would not give up my rights, and I did not believe life was unfair. I view life as a beautiful gift that requires courage to unpack.

To unpack life with courage requires strength and an innocent heart.  One must learn not to carry yesterday's sorrows to bed or at least hope that a good night's sleep will contain them. Furthermore, one should approach the next day with new eyes, so they can unwrap the present day and accept whatever comes out of it as part of a life experience. Lastly, one must hope that their family, community, and fellow citizens love them and wish them well. Some call it positive thinking, but I believe it’s a way of life.

Still, as you unfold the gift of life with courage, be content with it. You may face people in your own family who question the reason for your happiness. They inquire, comparing your gift to theirs, and conclude that your satisfaction is due to receiving a better present and that you are their father's favorite. As a result, they may carry a burden of resentment toward you for the rest of their lives. Your presence may constantly remind them why their father does not love them as he loves you. However, you can offer to help them lighten their load and share your gift for their well-being. To your surprise, you realize that the only way to make them happy is for you to be miserable. Later, as you discuss family dramas with your friends, you learn that each family has its own unique set of challenges.

So, you leave your family home behind and walk into a new neighborhood. You open your hands and heart to your neighbors, hoping to be welcomed. Despite your friendly manners, some of them may respond to your offer with an icy look, rude demeanors, and an extra spoon of salt that ruins the sauce. You wonder why they behave toward you with such hate as you have never met them before. Then you learn that they graduated from the finest school of prejudice. For a decade, they had been trained to dislike people who did not think, look or act like them. In their world, being happy, intelligent, free, and living with courage threatens their fundamental beliefs. To be their friend, one must act damn, voiceless, pitiful, and less deserving, so they can feel happy to help you.

As such, you leave behind the drama of your family and neighbors and go to the public square to meet your fellow citizens. As you navigate the system, you realize that the meaning of a nation based on people who share the same past, live together in the present, and wish to build a future together is only rhetoric. In reality, many so-called leaders and their followers care only for themselves and their families, and behind the curtain, they are professional in the art of deception. 

As you wonder who to believe and where to go, you find yourself in the middle of reality. You accept that you are a social animal and that society is your domicile. Furthermore, you acknowledge that life presents us with challenges, and our options are limited: we can freeze in front of obstacles and do nothing, flee from them and pretend they don't exist, or react and act to deal with them.

Personally, I believe our salvation comes when we stop wishing and start living, using every day as an opportunity to overcome life's challenges. We cannot give up on life, and with time, wisdom will eventually come to us. We accept that most people we meet come from similar families and neighborhoods we left behind. The truth is that life, with its challenges, is beautiful, but people can be unjust to each other.

So, I lost my job after standing up for my rights with courage, as a result, I also lost my health insurance benefits. Despite this setback, I carried on with my life and began looking for another job. Unfortunately, after months of searching, the only jobs I found were part-time positions that didn't reflect my education, or contractual positions without benefits. I joined the growing number of Americans who work, pay taxes, and don’t have health insurance benefits, relying on divine providence not to fail ill. Illness could mean losing their job, house, family, and friends and eventually facing bankruptcy. 

Although it was difficult, I recognized that it was my duty to accept the outcome of my loss and find peace with it, which I eventually did. I refused to succumb to wishful thinking and hope that a union, state, or federal government would come and save me. Instead, I took the matter of my health into my hands. I started to exercise regularly, eat healthily, surrender myself with friendly people, and put myself in healthy environments. Furthermore, I learned to embrace each day as it came and looked for ways to increase my income. 

As a result, I began working as a substitute French teacher at a private school in addition to my legal and contractual jobs. I enjoyed being around children and young people and felt fulfilled knowing I was helping with their education. Yet, one day as I walked into the school hall. I saw a table set up by a healthcare provider. The nurse behind the desk was offering flu shots to students and school staff. I approached the table and asked her if I could have a flu shot. She asked me if I had health insurance, and I said no. She then informed me that she was sorry but could not give me a flu shot without it. I replied that it was fine, but I was reminded again that I did not have health insurance. 

I continued my journey without health insurance. I found myself in a situation where I was too rich for Medicaid and too poor for Obamacare benefits. So, I resigned myself to paying a penalty fee for a service I did not receive at the end of each year. Then, I wondered how Insurance providers had outsmarted and defeated President Obama. However, I stopped short of blaming him, as I had supported his healthcare campaign. Later, when I met President Obama, he told me that Obamacare was a step in the right direction. I respectfully listened to him. Yet, I was glad to adopt the new law that prevented the government from penalizing me for not being able to afford coverage. 

So, like many Americans, I had entrusted my health to divine providence for years. However, in 2020, Covid-19 emerged and presented itself to the world. On Saturday, March 21, 2020, in my home state Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker issued an order asking residents to "stay at home." Since Covid-19 was highly contagious, there was no known cure for it, and it was deathly. Despite the government officials' efforts to control the disease, the New York Times estimates that to date, 41,443 people in Illinois have died due to the pandemic. The pandemic also fundamentally altered our way of life.

As a result, having a health insurance benefit was no longer a guarantee of survival. Additionally, everyone had to rely on divine providence for their health for the first time, as Covid-19 affected insured and uninsured citizens equally. The only difference was that we, the uninsured, had been living with the fear of death for so long that we became immune to it. We relied on faith to save ourselves from the brink of insanity.

In the People's house, lawmakers, known for their lack of actions and partisan fights, came to their senses and spoke similar language with diverse accents. They urged their fellow citizens to follow CDC guidelines and encouraged Americans to wear masks and practice social-distancing. Finally, they funded and provided testing throughout the country. Government officials also urged citizens to get tested and pleaded with them to get vaccinated at any Walgreens or CVS drug store free of charge. Despite their efforts, the New York Times estimates that to date, there have been 1,300,000 deaths in the United States of America. 

In June 2021, I answered the call and walked into Walgreens on Broadway Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois. and received my first shot Covid-19 vaccine shot. Weeks later, I received my second shot. As I was preparing to leave, the nurse asked me to spread the word to members of my community and urge them to come and get vaccinated for free. I was tempted to share my story with the nurse from the school and ask, "why is it free now, when it wasn’t before, and what has changed in America?". However, I refrained from saying anything, knowing that she was just doing her job like many of us.

I left the vaccination center with questions swirling in my head. Why did it take a pandemic for lawmakers to agree to offer free benefits now when they didn’t before? As I struggled to find answers, a simple explanation came to mind, they were scared. The thought made me feel sad and angry, but then I remembered Charles Bukowski words, "I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them." My heart raced, and I initially thought it was a side effect of the vaccines, but it wasn’t. So, I walked toward Lake Michigan and sat at the shore for fresh air. While, I pondered why the world's most powerful country still refuses to admit that "Health is wealth." and provide healthcare coverage for all of its fellow citizens. 

Sincerely,

Alpha



(Part II on the Right to Health in America coming soon).

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.