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Six months ago, Molly Osberg nearly died after inhaling a flesh-eating bacteria. Doctors struggled to understand why all her organs were shutting down, and she was put in a medically induced coma while they worked on her. Now she’s gone back to interview those doctors, painting a persuasive and grim picture of what would have happened to her without health insurance in a new piece for Splinter: “On that second Tuesday in June 2017, I found myself in what I worry could be a fleeting moment in my life, one in which the institutions around me find it advantageous to protect rather than screw me. I find it baffling that, since my illness, well-meaning people have repeatedly referred to me as a “survivor,” as if the fact that I got to go on with my life had to do with some inherent moral strength, rather than the material forces put in motion long before I got sick.” It’s a piece everyone should read if you’re at all concerned with basic inequality.
