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How I Got Radicalized
When ‘ER’s’ Dramatic Health Insurance Battles Became My Reality
It’s been 25 years since the medical drama premiered, and little has changed about American health care.
Welcome to “How I Got Radicalized,” a new series at GEN that tells a story about a cultural moment that made you drastically rethink how society works.
When I was nine years old, I was riding a horse in my suburban town’s Fourth of July parade when another horse spooked, causing mine to rear and send me tumbling backward. I smacked my head on the pavement, blacking out. I regained consciousness a few minutes later and was rushed to the emergency room. Television and movies taught me to expect to see doctors racing around calling for a battery of tests, but instead, I was met by a lone ER doctor who shined a penlight into my eyes and told my mom not to let me sleep for the next few hours.
Over the course of my childhood, I’d visit the ER twice more, for a baseball to the face and a broken finger. There were also the regularly scheduled doctors’ visits for yearly physicals, strep tests, and any other childhood ailments that went beyond a Band-Aid or an ice pack. I knew these visits cost money, and I had an opaque understanding of health insurance. But I lived a life lucky and privileged enough to not need to understand or worry about how health insurance worked. I knew my mom, a New York City teacher, was the policyholder for our family, and we were covered through her work. I knew from listening to her talking to the receptionists at the doctors’ offices that things like “copays” and” premiums” existed. But for our family, these things were simple facts, not the life-and-death choices they are for so many Americans. When my parents discussed money, it was mostly around things like college savings and financial aid packages — rarely medical bills. When I got sick, I went to the doctor; if there was an emergency, we went to the emergency room. Health care was simple: Hospitals helped.
