Andrew Newcomb

When an Apple a Day Isn't Enough: Students Speak Out About Health Coverage
To generate awareness among America's youth about the importance of health care coverage, Families USA and the Campaign for Children's Health Care sponsored a national essay contest for youth between the ages of 9-18. More than 4,500 students submitted stories nationwide, and one winner was chosen from each state. The essay below by Andrew Newcomb and the other winning essays highlight the importance of SCHIP and all were written by youth who directly benefited from the program.

Health insurance is a basic string in maintaining the progressive direction that America has taken since the early twentieth century. By protecting people's health and fruitfulness, through affordable health care, health insurance helps facilitate the American trend of erecting a secure middle class out of the lower working class, and thus eliminating poverty from society. The impact of health insurance upon my life attests to its progressive effects.

It was a typical afternoon at cross country practice. I could not figure out why I was having so much trouble running, until my coach realized that I had turned blue. The paramedics came and administered oxygen to me. They were able to stabilize me at the scene, circumventing a ride in the ambulance and a trip to the emergency room. The paramedics' efficiency saved my family about one-thousand dollars—and we had health insurance. The ensuing couple of years were filled with doctors' appointments and emergency room visits. I went through over ten doctors before we could get anywhere near a correct diagnosis. I have a nervous system disorder called postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. Overlapped with obstructive sleep apnea and migraine headaches, it proved to be a disabling condition.

The doctor who made the diagnosis is one of the best cardiologists in the nation. We could not have afforded to see either him or the chain of doctors leading up to him without having health insurance. As a low income family—about thirty thousand dollars a year—health insurance allowed for me to continue my education and my life. Without it, I would still be unable to walk, I would sleep almost twenty hours a day, and I could become a high school drop-out. Instead of preparing to attend college, I would be waiting on the arrival of my eighteenth birthday in order to apply for disability and possibly welfare. My life, without health insurance, would result in poverty due to disability.

For all but high class society, not having health insurance is either a sign of poverty or a harbinger of it to come. I happen to have a very rare condition that would have yielded me disabled without the proper treatment. However, a lack of health insurance could turn anyone's life upside-down. A simple infection could result in the loss of a limb or even an untimely, unnecessary death. In my father's case, a neglected sinus infection resulted in frontal lobe brain damage. He eventually sought treatment and had brain surgery. Without health insurance, his surgery would have driven our family further into debt. Then, had there been any complications with his operation, he may have been left severely paralyzed or dead and unable to pay for the surgery.

Health insurance is a life-affecting necessity. It not only prevented my father and me from being permanently disabled, but also kept our family in a house. I have the opportunity to pursue my dreams because affordable health care was available to me. Also, health insurance prevented me from losing my father and his support. I am an example of how health insurance has kept a family on the productive side of life, for it is a part of progressive American society.