Medical Need Deserving of Coverage

89/70.

I stare at this extremely low blood pressure, see my heart rate climb and feel clots the size of baseballs pour out of my body.

As an ER nurse with over six years of experience, I know this means I am dying. If I don’t receive an emergency blood transfusion soon, I will not live to continue my fight to become a mother.

As I start to black out, the physician enters the room, takes one look, and quickly shouts “blood, now!”. After that it was a blur of medical staff in the ER and operating room working to save my life. 

What I am describing is the latest catastrophe I have had the misfortune of enduring due to my two-year-long battle to carry a baby. It was the first time I almost lost my life but certainly not the first time my body has experienced trauma trying to succeed with the most fundamental biological task; the one it was made to do. 

Countless doctor’s appointments, surgeries, pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, blood tests, hours of research, worry and sadness. Lots of therapy. 

And perhaps most devastatingly, having to make choices on what testing and treatments I want to pursue since I am unable to do everything available to me in the medical field. The reason being that the state I live in does not mandate insurance coverage for people with conditions like mine. 

As a nurse I take care of patients all the time who in my opinion are responsible for their medical conditions, and yet insurance covers them. Despite how I may personally feel about these people’s choices, I never let that affect my practice. I treat every patient with respect and quality care.

My point is that morality and people’s opinions on what should or shouldn’t be deemed deserving of treatment or coverage has no place in medicine. I also did nothing to cause my medical condition and have tried desperately to do everything in my power to prevent further loss. The reason my husband and I pay hundreds of dollars a month into our insurance premiums is for the unexpected. For the hip replacement that might come with aging, for the allergy medications that might come with moving to a new climate that has four seasons, and also for the desire to have a child and the challenges that have accompanied that.

And we should not have to choose between having an emergency savings fund in case a car breaks down or our roof caves in—heck even a fund for a vacation much deserved after two years of back-to-back miscarriages and a near death experience—and paying many thousands of dollars to get the medical care necessary to have a child. 

I am hopeful that Vermont will listen to its constituents and pass fertility insurance legislation. I deserve to have access to the medical care that I need. I will continue to fight until I and others like me are treated as human beings with dire medical needs requiring insurance coverage.