Wow, my last post created quite a discussion, so I thought I would chime in with my own personal experience with our "wonderful" health care system.My previous wife past away almost 2 years ago from a long-term illness she had been battling for over 10 years. During that 10 years I was fully employed and had employer provided insurance (and it was pretty decent coverage on the surface). However over the course of that 10 years I had paid out of pocket expenses totaling over... wait for it, it's a big one... $200,000! That's right, enough to pay for a nice modest house, and that's with insurance! The bulk of that was paid during the last 4 years. How is the average American expected to deal with that?
I had to fight my insurance provider every step of the way with their pre-authorization requests, and other tactics. They would deny procedures and treatment based on all kinds of reasons that are too long to go into here. The point is, they were in control, not me, not my wife, and not our doctors! What are you supposed to do when the insurance company denies coverage of a procedure, forgo the procedure? We are talking about a person's life here! Most of the time I didn't even have that option, I usually found out they weren't going to pay for something after it was billed by the doctor/hospital. They put every effort into trying to prevent giving you the very coverage you are paying for. So those of you who are afraid of a public health plan because you think the government is going to take control over you and your doctor, I have news for you, you're not in control now. It wouldn't matter if the US did have the most advanced medicine in the world since damn few people can ever get it, even if they have "great" health "insurance".
So my question for those who are opposed to any type of government run plan, are you prepared to outlay the same type of expenses for yourself or family member that I did? What do you do if you lose your job, as millions of Americans have in the past several months, can you afford the COBRA costs with your unemployment check? Don't be naive and think it can't happen to you.
WE NEED HEALTH CARE REFORM NOW! WE NEED A PUBLIC OPTION NOW!
First of all there will never be an all stop gap fail safe expenditures for everything insurance whether private or public. There will never be an never ending checkbook for everything. Where private companies went wrong was trying to cover catostrophic coverage and regular doctor visits and prescriptions and everything else with one policy. Where the governement went wrong too, was pushing all the legislation requiring the private companies to cover everything. Why can't I say I don't need maternity stuff for my wife and I at this stage in life, or opt out of the Paul Wellstone (mental health requirement) legislation that was put in the Stimulus bill.
ReplyDeleteNow this Medical legislation will pit the employers against the employees , we all know if the employer can pay the tax the government requires to switch the coverage to the public plan, and its cheaper than the insurance companies premium, the companies going to dump it onto the government and the employees again have no choice. I know we didn't have a choice before but the governments track record isn't to good.
Also if taxing my wealth plans going to partially pay for this I believe the Union plans needs to pay too. I hate keep railling on the unions but fair is fair.
I know its not mentioned on this blog Yet. But Cap and trade has to one of the biggest rip offs besides the Tarp and stimulus bailout stuff. It's not about the enviroment anymore, ITS the tax revenue. I don't understand the need to self distruct the US economy, it is very resilient, but I'm not so sure it can grow with this much regulated junk science legislation . I know evil company make too much and pollute too much, but the government taxes to much and has too much controlling power..
As a personal friend of The Grumpy Old Sock, I know personally of what he went through. And I share his thoughts on viable government reform of the health care industry. Not only am I madly rabid for a complete government controlled takeover of that failed institution, i am completely ready to rebuff anyone else that believes our current system isn't broke, and a government run system will or could possibly be worse. If you believe that, you deserve the health care cost that you will incur under these profiteering corporations that rape your health in the name of their profits.
ReplyDeleteThe entire industry needs to be dismantled and rebuilt, as should have been done for the Auto industry. But alas, even though this administration will get some watered down anemic version of a public health plan, it wont be what's needed. If only Obama had some balls to actually make some of the change he promised instead of cow-towing to the same bullshit political interests as EVERY administration does. Sad...nothing is more important than health, but of course corporate profits.