Actually I am scared shitless.

[Alice11111]

33. I'm the same

I can't write or type because of an auto accident, and I have other injuries. Hard to sit. Driver ran a stop sign. I don't look disabled, but if u are around me much, you will see. I'm much better than I was a few years ago, but I can't write my name. Usually, when I go to the Dr, there is a big fit by intake because I can't fill out the forms. It pisses people off. I guess they think I'm faking it. Once I was at the Social Security office, and I had to write a check to pay for documents. I can squiggle a very big initial, like 2 inches or so, w my left hand as a signature for a check, but someone has to write the check for me. I asked the clerk at SS to please fill it out for me. She said, you are kidding, it isn't my job. An elderly minority gentleman sitting nearby got up and said, I can do that for you. (Some people have had experiences that make them more likely to empathize, and believe.) Most people are nice, and they will be helpful if I have to ask, but some are witches. Seems to me, women may be worse than men. However, it is partly that women are more likely to be in positions when I need help, and I think men are more likely to help women than women are.

I'm afraid too. Most of my relatives are Repubs. Some are good people. Some aren't. They all hate Obamacare.
They don't know why. Part of it is probably bigotry and part not liking poor people. They think everyone on Obamacare is poor and that it is welfare. Actually, most people on Obamacare pay a regular amount for insurance.

Most of the family gets some government benefits and the most conservative ones have government subsidized insurance and retirement. Duh? Never crosses their minds.

I worked an average of 60 hrs a week most of my adult life. I started working when I was 10. Single mom. Put kid thru college and grad school. (I was a Dem and liberal then too. I always have been.) Then, I had an accident, early one Sunday morning on my way to go hiking, out of the blue. My Repub mom was insinuating something about my not working. Someone has to drive me to Texas to visit her. She retired younger than I was before my accident: she retired on my father's father's money.
I responded that I had paid into SS my entire life, and most of the time both parts, employee and employer. It's my money.

Way too much of it goes to health care. I used to have a sizable nest egg, and I traveled a lot. Two houses. Then, I spent about $200k out of pocket for meds and wasn't able to work, which was even worse than the healthcare cost. As soon as Obamacare was available, that helped a lot, but I had already gone through my nest egg, with living expenses and medical.

It is not an exceptional story. There are millions of us.
I had clients with cancer who had previously been middle class. It wiped them out, and they died bankrupt and in poverty. Healthcare is at the center of what it takes to remain in a middle class lifestyle. The Repubs with their juicy government benefits want to starve out the rest of society, the poor, teachers, disabled, middle class, those with traumatic illnesses, etc. Unfortunately, they seem to be winning, for now. For many, they will be dead or homeless before things change again.