Before I was diagnosed with cancer, Amelia and I were making some pretty big changes in our lives. Closing Felicia’s, committing to our next business, taking out loans, working non-stop on the new building. One of the ways we were looking at saving money was on health insurance. Felicia’s has been paying our health insurance most of these last 11 years. Now that Felicia’s didn’t exist, we needed to switch to Obamacare, so we decided to make every possible health care appointment before the end of the month.

Amelia knows me well. When she first started shopping around for health insurance, she knew it had to be really good because I’m the type of person that would sever my finger off and duct tape it back on if I had a hefty deductible. Amelia also knows health insurance well, and she knew she had to make it easy for me to go to the doctor or I wouldn’t go. We ended up with a “Cadillac” plan: zero deductible, awesome coverage. We have some small co-pays, but that’s it. This plan costs $1200 a month for the two of us together, something I’ve been constantly complaining about for 11 years. Until now.

I’ve always been acutely aware that most of us are only a few steps away from becoming homeless. One unexpected bad situation like a health crisis can ruin any of us, can bankrupt us, take away our homes, and even put us on the street. Deductibles and copays can kill you financially. If we had a 20% copay, just one of the tests I had done cost $5000, that would have cost us $1000 out of pocket. The surgery will likely be about $40,000, that would have been an $8,000 copay. I would be looking at $9000 out of pocket expenses right there, and that’s only the first four weeks of care. Much more could follow. Chemo? Reconstruction? A brief stay in the ICU? We’re looking at over $100K out of pocket. My 11 years of paying into health insurance just paid off.

There are people who die from many lesser things than cancer because they can’t afford health insurance. Amelia and I certainly couldn’t have afforded to pay $1200 a month ourselves for the past 11 years if our business hadn’t covered it. I’m incredibly thankful, but at the same time guilt-ridden for any other person who doesn’t have the luxury of good health insurance. These days, that is exactly what it is – a luxury. No one should be dying because they can’t afford the astronomical cost of health care, but they are. They die from a cold, the flu, an infection, cancer. That just isn’t right. Health insurance should not be an elitist thing, but it is.

So to every person who ever bought a drink at or worked at Felicia’s, I thank you. And when I’m able to, I want to hug every single one of you. YOU saved my life.