WASHINGTON- Alex Epperly is a doctoral biophysiology student who enjoys learning about the human body and health.
However, when it comes to a health care plan, he believes it is a political game.
“I think they’re (Congress) playing softball too much with insurance companies,” Epperly explained. “Too much back and forth.”
Sunday marked the first day that Epperly would no longer be protected by his parents’ health care plan. He is on his own now, paying for his cheaper plan that would only protect him in cases of like a severe car crash or a heart transplant, he said. Starting Monday, he began paying $200 a month for the health care plan that only covers catastrophic illnesses.
Like Epperly, most people interviewed in Tenleytown on Monday, agreed that the biggest problem with health care is that the people who need it most, can’t afford to get it, leaving some nervous about the future.
Some 16-year-olds like Jauan Durbin know a great deal about the battle for affordable, effective health care. Durbin, who typed on a computer in the local Tenleytown Library, expressed his worries that he would not be able to afford an adequate health care plan. He believes Congress represents health care companies’ best interest, not the people.
Durbin has heard of the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare which allowed people to stay longer on their parents’ plans, and is insured by his parents. However, once he turns 26, he doesn’t know if he is going to pay for health care or not.
“It should be my choice to pay or not to pay,” Durbin said. “People should just mind their own business.”
On the corner of a busy Tenleytown street sits a CVS pharmacy where Rosaline Ngachie, 49, works as a pharmacist. She meets with many ill patients daily, and comes across few who are without health insurance.
“Half of the time they are covered and they get sick,” said Ngachie.
When asked about how the people without health insurance pay, she said “We give them a discount card.”
Many people frequent the pharmacy in CVS for all sorts of reasons.
“We can usually predict what people will need before they come in,” Ngachie said. “Allergy season is big and after big holidays you have Pepto and heartburn.”
When asked whether everyone should have health care, Ngachie replied, “You should because you never know what will happen to you unless you have a CT scan of your body.”
Other people in Tenleytown have a slightly different take on health care.
Nan Ivy, 66, grew up in Atlanta, Georgia before moving to Tenleytown.
When she was in her 20s, Ivy lost her parents’ health coverage and went for an extended amount of time without any kind of health insurance because it was too expensive.
“In Atlanta there’s a hospital that’s tax-funded,” said Ivy. “I went there whenever I was sick and couldn’t go to a doctor.”
Once she got a steady job, things improved for Ivy and after a while her job provided her with the health insurance that she needed.
Now she faces a new problem with health insurance.
“I have a daughter,” said Ivy. “She lives in Florida and she didn’t get Obamacare. I told her to, but she didn’t listen.”
Ivy had a difficult time trying to speak about the topic because it was so upsetting to her.
“She’s so sick,” said Ivy. “She’s so sick and no one will help her. I don’t know what to do.”
People like Ivy’s daughter, who is in her late 20s, struggle on a daily basis without health insurance, and even though they may be ill, or in need, no one will help them because they aren’t insured.
Ivy is “disgusted” by the lack of health care assistance in the U.S.
Ivy said, “Senators and congressmen get free health care and I don’t know why we can’t.”
