Ashley+L’s+Final+AmEx+Speech+2017

On April 20th, 2014 I started my period, for 13 years of my life prior to that I was able to enjoy wearing white jeans now I have to check my period tracker on my phone just to be safe whenever I decide to wear white jeans. The average woman undergoes menopause around 50 years old, so from the age of 13 to 50 once a month I will have a period, for 37 years, 12 months a year, that's a total of about 444 period I will undergo in my lifetime, 2,220 days, and about 6 years of bleeding. The average box of tampons or pads will come with around 18 tampons or pads and will cost roughly around 5 dollars. And although 5$ doesn’t seem like much, try looking at this simple 5$ dollar box of tampons from my eyes.

Everyone is affected differently when it comes to their period, some girls will have a light flow, others a heavy one, some while have a regular cycle and others will have a more irregular cycle. There’s only so much blood a tampon or pad could hold before it begins to leak, the amount of blood each tampon holds depends on its size and how heavy your flow is, but the average tampon last around 4-6 hours, some longer, some less, again their are multiple factors, around 5 tampons a day, 5 days a week that's 25 plus tampons a cycle, just in one week you will pay about 10$ a week on your feminine products, that’s 120$ a year, and 4,440$ in 37 years of periods.

That’s just for products like pads and tampons, the underwear's, pants, skirts, and dresses, that will be ruined by stains from “accidents” were not taken into account. Not to mention the midol, for the cramps each bottle being around 9$, the chocolate cravings, and the mood swings that have no price tag. Most people don’t view 4,440$ as grand amount to spend over an accumulation of years on something women have no control over. Instead women are given ridiculous names for their menstrual cycles just to name few, riding the crimson wave, flow, in her flowers, rag, red tide, sally, and shark week.

Let me move into another aspect of my life that I can’t control. Some one you probably remember me wearing a hideous navy blue arm sling, while having a giant swollen left hand. On May 14th I got stung by a bee, and even though I had been previously stung I didn’t know you could become allergic to something after multiple exposures to it. I developed a severe bee allergy, so now I have to carry around with me an epipen wherever I go. Around 40 people die from insect related stings a year in America, anaphylaxis shock can be neutralized through the use of an epi pen. My family is fortunate enough to have health insurance, other wise my epipen would have cost 395$. 395$ for something I need to use so I won't die from a bee sting, 395$ that I need to save my life.

We have developed so much new technology, life saving technology, yet 20 million people don’t have health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, but this would increase to 50 million if it was repelled. People postpone getting medical attention for the lack of funds they have to pay for it after. An ambulance ride can cost around 900$, imagine having to call an ambulance for your sibling knowing that your family can’t afford the immense amounts of fees and payments the hospital will charge. How can a family that lives paycheck by paycheck, worry about tampons or epipens, when their main priority is to acquire their daily needs. 395$ is a ridiculous amount that anyone should have to pay for something they have no control over, just like having to pay 4,440$ is bloody hell. Cancer, Lupus, autoimmune diseases, heart defects, these all require expensive treatments. In 2014 Americans spent 374$ billion dollars in medicine, this number has only incremented since then. If the American Dream gave an equal opportunity to everyone, why does it favor those who can afford it. We allow ourselves to be beholden to pay for all these fees, and copays, and treatments.

In the America I dream of, there would be universal health care available to everyone, regardless of race, gender, or income. Why should a family who needs medical attention be denied help? Our current healthcare system is extremely disproportionate towards Women and African American, why have we created such an unjust system in our country. I want to know that even if my family couldn’t afford my epipen that I wouldn't be left for dead the next time I get stung. I understand that having a period is natural and that I can’t control any part of it, but I don’t think companies like, tampax, playtex, equate, kotex, and others, should make billions of dollars off my period *cough Capitalism cough*.

Our current American healthcare system is a bloody mess, and a universal health care is what we need to give everyone an equal chance at living.