Medicare for All 96” x 96” Cyanotype photograms of crushed prescription medication, printed on medical statements, mounted on foam core board 2021
Among a lifetime of possessions found in my parents' house after their passing was what seemed like a lifetime of prescription medication. My parents very much wanted to die at home, so we chose hospice for both. Hospice shifts end-of-life focus from treatment of the illness to patient comfort. Expenses are entirely covered by Medicare. In addition to a raised toilet seat, wheeled-walker with a built-in seat to rest as you walk from the bathroom to the recliner, and medical-grade bed with rails, patients who choose hospice are prescribed all the pain-reliving medication they desire. When my parents died ten weeks apart, our family was suddenly without the structure their marriage of fifty years had provided. I turned to abstraction to process my grief, making cyanotype photograms from the remaining prescription medications.
While making this piece, I was thinking about how I could justify work that is so aesthetically pleasing, when the topic is medical expenses. But, growing up, one of my greatest privileges was that my father was a public counselor and worked for a county institution that offered therapy on a sliding scale so all could afford it. Because of this my family had government health insurance, and we never had to worry about healthcare costs. When they were retired, they had Medicare with some kind of very affordable secondary insurance. Once again, even after surgeries, procedures, week-long hospital visits, ambulance transports, medication, and an abundance of medical gear, my siblings and I were left with essentially no medical expenses. In one of the wealthiest countries in the world, why isn’t this the case for all?