Why are republicans opposed to giving me a chance to see a doctor?

I'm sorry, but I'm feeling very frustrated today. I've recently had several discussions with some friends of mine that are very upset at the prospect of everybody in this country having access to healthcare. These friends are republicans and they are so opposed to any health care reform (although they can't explain clearly why), that they almost feel it would be better for everyone to commit suicide if such reform actually happened.

I let them talk and go on about how terrible it will all be if everyone had access to health care and that it will mess up "our" insurance and "our" treatment. They didn't know I wasn't covered by health insurance. As I listened, the main theme of their argument was boiled down to this concept: My insurance is great and I don't want it messed up by making health care available to ALL.

When I finally took my turn in the conversation, I said, "You know, I have been self employed for 17 years and have always simply had to buy my own insurance. 17 years ago it was $325/month to cover my family. Unfortunately, I had to drop it when my original plan finally reached almost $2,000/month, yes $2,000/month." Funny how they sort of got quiet after that. I went on to tell them that I have Type 2 diabetes and currently take Metformin to control it. Because of that diagnosis on my record, I am now uninsurable...that is to say I would be turned down by any policy I would apply for, and in fact I have been. The recession has clipped my earnings by 70% over the last 2 years and my health insurance had to go... in my case it literally was a choice between food and lodging and health insurance. So I explained to them that my prescription for Metformin runs out in 3 months and I have no insurance or money to go see a doctor to get it refilled. I called my doctor to try to see if they would refill it for me over the phone... no they would not, I would have to come in for an appointment which is a minimum $150-$200 plus blood work before she would refill it. Guess what, I do not have that kind of spare money now so when my prescription runs out, I can't get it refilled unless they wanted to loan me the money. They weren't interested. I told them my 12 year old daughter is now not covered because dad can't afford it.

I said the only way now for me to get any shot at getting health insurance is to try and find a full time job that offered it because group plans can't discriminate when it comes to pre-existing conditions. Which is one major reason I have enrolled to go back to school to get a job actually IN the health care industry. Neither can the Oregon Medical Insurance Pool which is the plan for indigent and uninsurable people and guess what that plan runs for my family... over $700/month. Affordable? Get real. There is still NO allocation for $700/month in my financial situation to afford that.

So I asked my friends, who were now pretty quiet in their arguments, what the republican party should do about health care reform. They didn't have a single answer. Because I believe that party is basically only thinking of themselves, who are the "haves" and they do not want to help out the "have nots". It's interesting because for many years I was in the "haves" groups myself, flying high with a 6 figure income, but life looks really different when you are living on the side of the argument for real and the health care argument is no longer a discussion in theology but a real life situation that you live in every day, and becomes real when the medication you used to be able to take is now taken away from you because of lack of coverage. Life looks really different on the other side.

Please, republicans or democrats, please pass a plan that would allow me to go out tomorrow and get health coverage for me and my family that I can afford that won't exclude me because of a pre-existing condition.