Something is very wrong here!

Every day I try and do one thing that absolutely terrifies me. Today I tried to get health insurance.

I have been one of the lucky ones in this department. I have always had insurance since I was an adult. When I worked, I provided my own health care. After I became a stay at home mom, it was provided via the exes work. Now I am not working and I am not married, so I need to carry something on my own.

The kid is carried on the exes policy, so it is just me. Just old, totally unhealthy, me. I think I am very healthy. The insurance companies think otherwise. I have psoriasis, which is something you are born with. It is a skin disorder. I spend maybe $200.00 a year on lotion. It is the kiss of death in the insurance world. I get lumped with the same group as HIV/AIDS. It is labeled as "chronic" which it is, it just has different severity levels. I'm low. No one cares.

Since my life has gone tipsy-turvey, I take high blood pressure medicine. Another kiss of death. I have lost a bunch of weight, red flag. I had a C-section, red flag. The list goes on and on. I will never understand how a country as large and as intelligent as ours, can let this health care problem run unchecked. The insurance companies dictate and we follow, or in my case, don't follow.

Not one of us is perfect. Yet, we allow the insurance companies to say "NO, you are too fat" "NO, you are a smoker" "No, you are blond" "No, you are something or other" Sure I know all the talk of rising premiums. The cost that comes with obese people, or smokers, or people who don't exercise, or people with chronic illness, is amazing. Though even if you start to change your life, you are still penalized. Yes, I was fat at one time, sure the odds are good that I may be again, but the odds are also there that I may never be fat again. I exercise now, I hate it but I do it. I will continue to do it because I know the benefits it provides.

I hope to be off the high blood pressure medicine, but what if I can't achieve that goal? I am to have no coverage because I don't fit the profile for a "HEALTHY LIFESTYLE?" I run 5 miles a day, I eat low-fat, I watch what I drink, I maintain a positive attitude, and yet, I am "A high risk candidate."

Something is very wrong here.