Planned Parenthood: More Than Sexual Health-

I have been using Planned Parenthood’s services periodically since I was around 20 years old.  To be honest, the only reason ‘abortion’ comes to mind at all when I think of them is because of the disgusting signs I used to see from the protesters on the nearby street.

image credit: Cafe Press - not my design

What I think of when someone says Planned Parenthood, is solutions. Not just solutions to unwanted pregnancies, but to preventing pregnancy in the first place. They provide counseling and options at a lower cost than other practitioners’ offices, and have up-to-date information about new products and programs that are available in the community.

Planned Parenthood also provides solutions that have nothing whatsoever to do with sex or pregnancy. They provide well-women visits and pap smears, and also treat vaginal or urinary infections – many of which could become serious or fatal if left untreated.

To further this cause, many of their health centers are open during evenings or weekends, allowing women to receive care during hours when their regular doctors’ offices are closed. This, too, is important when facing a potentially serious infection which needs immediate treatment. A trip to Planned Parenthood may save someone a trip to the emergency room.

These are the things that mean “Planned Parenthood” to me. These are the reasons I have sought them out in multiple cities, the reasons I signed the petition, and the reasons I’m writing this to further spread the word.

If you know me at all, you know I am a woman who wants to save the world. That’s obviously a pretty tall order, but if I can at least help to save this worthwhile organization, you can bet I’m going to do everything I can!

Health Care Reform

There is a stigma in this society against poor people, or anyone even potentially perceived as poor.  I ran into this several years ago when I determined that I could not get any decent customer service with regard to the credit card I had because it was a secured credit card – the kind you get when you don’t have credit enough to get a “real” credit card.  And I’m learning it again now, at my son’s expense.

See, when my husband lost his job in July, we lost our health insurance.  When we moved to Florida, we applied for assistance.  Because we had substantial savings, though, he and I did not qualify, but our son did because the rules are different for children.  We were relieved, but honestly?  We shouldn’t have been.

Could you tell this sweet little face that his doctor won't see him because he doesn't have the right insurance?

As it turns out, there are very few pediatricians in our county who take Medicaid at all.  Those who do, often have huge waiting lists.  The first appointment we ever made resulted in a more than two hour wait, while walk-ins were also being taken.  We left after two and a half hours, having never even met the doctor.  When we got home, we changed his doctor immediately.

Unfortunately, now we have a new problem: sick visits.  Twice in the past couple of months, I have attempted to make a sick visit appointment for him due to a recurring cough.  In both instances, my choices have been to wait 1-2 weeks for an appointment, or bring him in as a walk-in (which of course means no guarantee of being seen).  That is simply unacceptable.  We incurred over $200 worth of medical charges yesterday because we took him to urgent care, knowing that we wouldn’t be able to get an appointment today anyway.  This is not a choice I should have to make.  My child should not receive sub-par care just because his parents were going through a hardship.

What’s more: I can’t get ahold of anyone to find out what our current status is.  See, (and my apologies for not posting about this previously) my husband is finally gainfully employed again, after a very long ten months!  I need to contact someone to find out how this affects Bug’s eligibility because Bear’s health insurance and benefits do not kick in until the beginning of August.  But herein I reach another issue: my login no longer works on their website, and their telephone lines are so congested that I get a message telling me to try my call again later and I am disconnected from the call.

This story is proof that there is Something Wrong with our health care system, and the way our society in general regards the unemployed/uninsured, or anyone perceived as a “have not.”  I don’t profess to have all the answers as to HOW to fix it, but I can attest heartily to the fact that it needs fixing.  Badly.