One more fucked-up data point about the for-profit health care system: before the ACA, I was also unable to purchase health insurance from anyone at any price.

One more fucked-up data point about the for-profit health care system: before the ACA, I was also unable to purchase health insurance from anyone at any price. Why? Because, in 2004, I had my gallbladder out. Then I moved overseas for a year and a half, and didn't have an American-based health insurance plan. I came back, and boom, I have a "lapse in insurance" and a "pre-existing condition". The ACA at least let me buy health insurance, although the plan is so expensive and so shitty I can't really use it for anything. American health care is garbage, and we desperately need a radical change in how we care for people here.