Imagine a person named Kelly. Ten years ago, Kelly became very ill. After an extensive stay in a hospital Kelly was placed on disability. Now due to the miracles of science Kelly feels much better and with the proper medication can return to work.
Not everyone on disability wants to be there. The dilemma is that if Kelly applies for a job and gets it, Kelly will lose his or her medical coverage and the employers insurance may not cover a pre-existing medical condition.
Kelly’s only choices are to remain on disability, or take the job and risk losing medical coverage until the illness forces Kelly back onto disability or into the hospital once again. What would you do if you were Kelly?
The fact is that there are many a Kelly in the United States. They are people who are too young to be sitting around collecting disability. They are people who would like nothing more than to go back to being a tax paying productive member of society. People who have made it through adversity only to find themselves caught between a rock and a hard place, with the rock being a need for medication and the hard place being the inability to afford medical coverage.
The funny thing is that with all the talk about the cost of health care reform nobody has taken into consideration that Kelly will get the medication he or she needs and the rest of society is going to pay for it. The only question is if Kelly is going to be allowed to contribute to it, which is what Kelly wants to do anyway.
