Health Care

Everyone seems to have their say in how health care should be renovated, and I’m not about to let this opportunity pass up. Before I get into it too much, I’d like to just mention a couple of the points I am hearing more frequently.

1. Creating a public option will force health insurance companies to find ways to cut costs in order to compete.
2. Creating a public option will force health insurance companies to fold since they won’t be able to compete.

Where do I stand?

• I believe health insurance is a right, not a privilege.
• I believe that no person should ever have to declare bankruptcy or see their medical bills sent to collections because they cannot afford health insurance.
• I believe that “pre-existing condition” is just a cop out for health insurance companies to reduce their costs.
• I believe insurance companies have a long history of “the bad guy” in this country and I can’t quite figure out why everyone seems to forget that AIG has taken hundreds of billions of dollars from taxpayers because they are a poorly run business! How is that any different than telling me that Medicare is “going broke” and that we need more money to keep it going?

What troubles me the most about the conservative approach to health care reform is their willingness to protect private insurance companies while keeping the government’s hand out of their affairs, yet when these companies fail it becomes the responsibility of the taxpayers and the government to bail them out.

I find it ironic that health insurance companies will reject your claim to care because when you started your recent policy you were already sick (so that’s a pre-existing condition and they refuse to cover that).  Yet, when AIG was ready to fail and people wanted to let them fail, it was “un-American” to let so many people lose their jobs and suffer because the company was poorly managed.

It’s like a never-ending circle of irony when the very companies some are looking to protect are the same companies that have taken advantage of us for decades and continue to take our money and reject our claims.  I sit here with medical bills that were sent to collection years ago and have damaged my credit for years because I was a full-time student, working two to three jobs throughout college and couldn’t afford to pay for the cast to be put on my broken ankle or wrist.    When I had to choose between a meal plan for a semester, or to pay a hospital bill – I didn’t feel that I really had a choice.

I remember lying in a muddy field with paramedics working their magic on me in an attempt to get my breathing back in order (asthma).  They carted me into the closest residence hall to get me out of the rain and then asked if I wanted to be taken to the hospital.  I told them I had no insurance and I wouldn’t be able to pay for the bill.  They advised me to allow them to take me to the hospital and monitor me since I had no medication (asthma medication would cost me $150/month w/out insurance).  So here I am, unable to take a full breath without the oxygen mask and unable to pay the medical bill.

My situation would be considered a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is “no big deal” and 10 is “tragic.” Millions of people in this country go every day without health insurance, doing everything they can to stay healthy so they can continue to work and provide for their families.  No person should have to choose between paying a medical bill and putting food on the table for their family.

Back to the wider discussion on health care reform.

1. The government can’t be responsible for health care because they’re inept, just look at how broke Medicare is.
2. The government is in a position to regulate the health care industry and help reduce/eliminate wasteful spending.

The government provides health care to all government employees, veterans and senior citizens.  I don’t see any Congresspersons complaining that their health insurance is terrible.  I don’t see any bail outs for Medicare like what we saw for private industry over the past year.

I am not as concerned about the government having their hand in health care because I think this is just the type of program we need to force accountability and action from our representatives. If we don’t like our current health insurance, there isn’t much we can do.  We choose from the plans our company offers or we pay out of pocket.  If we don’t like the public health care plans, we can go directly to our representatives and tell them why.  If we don’t see change, we simply elect another representative who will get the job done.

I’m also not as concerned about the government having their hand in health insurance because I’d rather have government run health insurance than no health insurance.

I’ve been watching these town hall recaps, you know the ones with some white guy jumping up and screaming, “My health insurance is just fine, mind your own business!”  If you interviewed that guy 5 years ago and asked him what he thought about the performance of insurance companies, I’m willing to bet that you’d hear him say something along the lines of, “They’re crooked,” and it may have been followed by a scoff.

We dumped billions of dollars into the laps of the terribly unethical executives at AIG and they went on vacation a week later.  Why haven’t we had a stimulus plan for Medicare if it’s broke? It boggles my mind.

1. Stephen Hawkings and Ted Kennedy would be left to die with a government run health care plan.
2. O_O

I’m not really sure where this came from, or how they continue to use this to justify their disapproval for the current drafts of health care reform.  They seem to believe that an elderly person who needs an expensive procedure to stay alive would be left to die because the government finds them to be useless to society. I had to find out for myself where they got this from.

I read the referenced pages in the draft of the health care reform bill (Page 432) and the concern is summarized as:

The government is going to collect data on the cost and effectiveness of life prolonging procedures and medications.  If the government finds that a procedure costs more than the estimated value that you provide to society, then you’re shit out of luck buddy.

I tend to believe that the intention of this section was to help identify wasteful spending.  If a pharmaceutical company claims to have a pill that can delay a cancer and help you live an extra year, you may think, “I want it!” If you found out that the pill only helps 5% of people who take it live an extra year, you may still think, “I want it!”  If you found out that of the 5% who live an extra year, that 95% of those people end up spending all their time in hospitals on life support, barely hanging on to life and racking up medical bills that will get passed onto their families, you may take a second look at it.

The problem is, you don’t have access to that information, because data on these types of procedures is not consistent. I’d like to see a nationwide study to determine the cost effectiveness of these procedures and even identify where the waste occurs.  A conservative may choose to translate my statement of “waste” as people who are expendable.  I choose to translate “waste” as unnecessary costs (such as charging $20,000 to stay overnight in a hospital; what does it COST to keep someone overnight?).

1. Our health care needs improvement.

Hey! We finally agree! On that note I’m done for the night.  I’m sure I’ll be back soon to talk this over.