Liene Stevens

dress by Monique Lhuillier via The Bride's Cafe

Last year I was offered a book deal by a major publisher to write about a season of my life that happened in my early twenties, but I turned it down for various reasons. I am generally reticent to post anything so publicly about it since it can easily be misconstrued or taken out of context. Today however, I was inspired by Dana, and some of the other conversations stemming from Obama's recent Congressional address on health care, to share more of my story. 

A few months before my 21st birthday, I was in a meeting when I suddenly had difficulty breathing and felt an excruciating pain shoot through my chest.  The pain moved across my body to my arms and legs and then just as quickly as it had come on, the pain turned to numbness. After about 45 minutes, everything was back to normal.  I brushed it off as odd and went about life as usual.  Three days later my I woke up to my morning alarm clock and the inability to move or feel my legs.

This sporadic paralysis would continue for two-and-a-half years. When I was mobile, my body would be racked with pain.  The pain subsided only when my limbs decided to be immobile and numb.  The paralysis would last anywhere from twenty minutes to eight hours, arriving with no warning. 

When this began, I had a relatively cushy job in corporate America with great benefits including fantastic health coverage.  The first several months of this mysterious season were filled with trips to doctors and specialists. Catscans, MRI's, and other unpronounceable scans and procedures (including a painful spinal tap to rule out Multiple Sclerosis) became a familiar routine. 

As for my cushy job, I was in danger of losing it as I had missed too many days of work due to this unwelcome condition.  Fortunately, I was granted leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (thank you, Ted Kennedy) and my job was protected somewhat for the time being.  Doctors continued running tests in search of a diagnosis. 

Because of a loophole, my insurance company dropped my coverage about eight months into the process.  Later, after the 16 weeks of FMLA protection, I also lost my job and income.  I was now 22 years old with no insurance and no job and literally unable to walk most days. 

In order to pay the bills, I began freelance projects that I could do from home and on days that I was mobile. This is when I learned that I could plan an event and hand it over to someone else for execution (a skill that came in handy later on with my business). Until that point, the control freak in me had to be at every turning point of an event's process from design conception to the last hour of strike. I also did quite a bit of writing projects and design work during that time. It still wasn't nearly enough to make up for the income I had lost. 

The doctors went on in their efforts to heal me, the only difference being that I was now responsible for the invoices rather than my insurance company.  My medical issues were resolved when I was 23 and I have been mobile ever since.

Today, however, I am still dealing with paperwork and the financial ramifications of that season.

I am very proud of the fact that I have zero business debt. I do however, have quite a bit of medical debt because of my lost insurance coverage and a significant portion of my salary goes to paying it off.

I am also one of the millions of Americans who is uninsured.  Under the current system, my previous health issues, even though I don't suffer from them now, are considered a pre-existing condition and as a result I cannot get heath coverage, not even for catastrophic events.  I also do not qualify for state health aid because I make well above the poverty line. 

Studies show that the number one reason for homelessness in the United States is lack of health insurance (the second reason is drugs/alcohol/mental disease). I was fortunate that I had family and friends that stepped in to help me cover living expenses during that time. Not everyone has that luxury. Again, I was lucky.

I am still lucky.  I am blessed to have businesses that are doing well enough to help me pay off the medical debt that accrued and pay my current bills. I am blessed that I can drive, walk, dance whenever I want to; all aspects of life that I will never again take for granted.  I am blessed knowing that whatever happens with the economy or my companies or pretty much anything else life throws my way will most likely pale in comparison to the physical and emotional pain of those two-and-a-half years.

I am also well aware that not everyone is so lucky and that it more often than not has absolutely nothing to do with laziness or lack of desire to get a job that affords or provides health care. 

Health care is not a black and white issue, and I also do not believe it is an issue that requires a staunch toeing of some political party line.  For me, as a Christian, health care is a social justice issue plain and simple.  I believe that we are blessed to be a blessing, and if I have to pay more in taxes and live more simply so that others may simply live, that is a sacrifice I am more than happy to make.

Photo from Sanctuary on Camelback

Liene Stevens