I was a geology major in another lifetime, and thus it came as no surprise to anyone, including me, when I enjoyed the show Earth 2. A few months ago I stumbled onto the DVD set on Amazon, decided to buy it, and have since been renewing my acquaintance with the series.
Out of the “what are they doing now” type of curiosity, I looked up some of the actors on the Internet and was saddened to discover that J. Madison Wright (True Danziger) died of a heart attack at the age of 21. Six years before that, she’d had an heart transplant. I’ve mentioned before that my father had an organ transplant, so this touched a chord for me.
She had also apparently hit the lifetime limit on her health insurance. The number of people who end up in that situation is so small that statistics aren’t even available. But my father was also one of them — and my family still feels lingering economic effects today despite it being nearly twenty years ago. So learning that really touched a chord.
Growing up in such an environment meant that I was exposed to the harsh realities of medical costs and health insurance at a rather young age. Although I didn’t learn the terminology until I was an adult, by the time I was in middle school I understood deductibles, coinsurance, co-pays and similar health coverage concepts. I also grew up surrounded by the bureaucracy that comes along with health insurance.
I’ve often wondered if that early exposure is the reason I developed my talent for handling red tape. The running joke among friends and family is that the stuff runs screaming when it sees me. Even providers and employers have commented about my “touch” when it comes to such things.
I’ve also often wondered if that’s how I ended up in employee benefits as a field. I didn’t go into it intentionally; rather, the career field found me. But it was such an unusually good match that I (and many others) sat up and took notice. A lot of it simply seemed to come naturally; but I wonder if that is actually a result of the early exposure.
I’ve talked with friends in other career fields and some report the same experience I’ve had: the career seemed to choose them instead of the other way around. The ones who feel this the strongest are the ones who, like me, can trace parts back to their childhood.
Don’t misunderstand: given the choice, I’d far rather my father have not been so sick. That puts it very mildly. While I’ve come to terms with it, I’ve never stopped feeling angry and cheated about his illness and death. The debt issue is one of the reasons why.
But it does make me wonder about the reasons things happen sometimes. Maybe my father’s lifetime limit was part of what created the life path that chose me, and that I ended up choosing back.
