Among the many stressful tasks adulthood has brought me, health insurance seems to have taken the top of the list on things I really don’t want to deal with. As I approached my 19th birthday I faced a very scary reality. I would be left without health insurance, and no affordable options to purchase any.

Around this same time (of course) my health took a nosedive straight for hell. Is it really a coincidence that I was dropped from my childhood insurance a day before I was scheduled for mouth surgery? Or is it the God’s of the government punishing me for not paying into the system?

In the few months that followed, and with open enrollment closing in, the illness grew. I found out I had chronic Mononucleosis. It came with debilitating fatigue, increased infections, and flu-like symptoms every single day. Both hard to manage when I’m unable to see a doctor for treatment due to lack of funds.

I recently developed Shingles, (yes I was vaxxed for chicken pox as a child) out of no surprise considering they’re brought on by stress.

I lost vision in my left eye after having 20/20 vision nearly a week prior.

All of this brought a doctor to a conclusion that it’s possible I have Multiple Sclerosis. As you can imagine, it was no cheap feat getting these diagnosis’s.

And now what am I to do at 19 years old. My cheapest insurance option is nearly 300 dollars a month for a catastrophic plan. So great, I can use my insurance only if I’m dying. Not useful when you have chronic illness.

Most importantly, I’m questioning the policies of the government I live under.

Why wouldn’t they want their citizens to be healthy? How can anyone actually afford healthcare costs? Why have insurance if your monthly payments are more expensive than out of pocket costs?

Above all, why are they setting their future generations up for an unhealthy failure.

Of course I don’t have the answers for these questions.. or I wouldn’t have to ask them. Nor would I be thousands of dollars in medical debt. What I am certain about though, after first handedly reaping the negative consequences of the systematic failure this country has set those of my generation up for, we need to change.

We (my generation) need to write our congressmen and women. We need to vote. We need to study the system and as those of our generation begin to inhabit the chairs that have the power to change the system we need to make sure they are educated and understanding of what this country is doing and planning.

I pray that nobody of my generation has to come to understanding of this the difficult way as I did.

I pray my generation decides to be the change that is needed for the good of all Americans and their health.