My sophomore year I dislocated my knee while playing volleyball. It was excruciatingly painful and I should have gone to the doctor, but I couldn’t afford it. So, I braced myself, took a deep breath, popped my knee back in place myself and put on a knee brace.

I’ve been dealing with it ever since. I eventually made it to the doctor, but they told me that I’d have to have surgery on my anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Guess what? Can’t afford that either. So I’m just going to deal with the frequent pain and avoid too much physical activity until I have good enough insurance to help pay for it.

Unfortunately, I’m not alone. There are people all over the country who don’t have insurance, or have poor coverage so they can’t afford proper care. This is unacceptable.

My surgery is estimated to be $20,000-50,000. I can’t imagine the bills of cancer patients or people who have conic illnesses or diseases. That kind of bill can ruin anyone’s outlook on life often forcing them to choose whether to be healthy and go broke or live with their ailment so they can financially survive.

Our country has to do something. The health insurance options that we have are put to shame by other countries such as Canada who has a publicly funded health care system while the US’s is privately owned. It’s time for the US to care more about people rather than money.