Before you all start slandering my political viewpoint is being "too liberal," I'd like to point out that I'm more "Centrist" or "Independent" than really a Member to a side.
As many of you know, I have a major pre-existing condition. You know, generally when someone is diagnosed with a serious cancer at a young age that pretty much excludes you from being able to obtain a private insurance policy. An insurance company sees "Melanoma" in your medical records, and they can't possibly shut their doors fast enough to deny you coverage.
Lucky for me I have a policy with my job, which I know even though I am a very healthy person despite my isolated incidence of Melanoma almost 3 years ago costs my parents an arm and a leg to pay for annually. We don't have a "Cadillac" policy, but it still costs over $400 per month in premiums to the business since small businesses generally get shafted with crappy policy rates. And that $400+/month premium doesn't include my $25.00 office visit co-pay, or my 30% "reasonable and customary" out of pocket expenses that I'm responsible for AFTER my annual deductible is met!
And despite the fact that I had my "good insurance" when I was going through my surgeries for the melanomas that they found, I was still left with high medical bills to cover what my "out of pocket percentage" was. In a six month period, we spent over $9,000.00. Could you imagine what that would have been like if I needed chemotherapy or more invasive surgical options? I don't even want to think about that at this point. $9,000.00 is a whole HECK of a lot of money for a young couple that had only been married for just over a year with a baby!
And I'm one of the lucky ones that has insurance!
At least 15% of the population is completely uninsured, and a substantial additional portion of the population (21%) is "underinsured", or not able to cover the costs of their medical needs. More money per person is spent on health care in the United States than in any other nation in the world, and a greater percentage of total income in the nation is spent on health care in the U.S. than in any United Nations member state except for East Timor. Despite the fact that not all citizens are covered, the United States has the third highest public healthcare expenditure per capita. A 2001 study in five states found that medical debt contributed to 62% of all personal bankruptcies. Since then, health costs and the numbers of uninsured and underinsured have increased.
According to the Institute of Medicine of the United States National Academies, the United States is the "only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage" (i.e. some kind of insurance). The same Institute of Medicine report notes that "Lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States." While a 2009 Harvard study published in the American Journal of Public Health found a much higher figure of more than 44,800 excess deaths annually in the United States due to Americans lacking health insurance. More broadly, the total number of people in the United States, whether insured or uninsured, who die because of lack of medical care was estimated in a 1997 analysis to be nearly 100,000 per year.
I guess I don't see that problem in guaranteeing health coverage to all United States Citizens. To me, it should be a basic right. And we are not talking about Socialized Medicine here. We are talking about restrictions imposed on the money-making insurance companies, and the option to shop a pooled network of Small Businesses and Individuals to get a better "group rate" for a policy. And if you can't afford insurance with your income? You can qualify for a government subsidy.
Higher taxes suck. But for me, what sucks more... is the fact that Hospitals are forced to charge more for all of their services (like $200 for Tylenol) because they are stuck footing the bill for people that have no ability to pay for medical care. In California, the law is that no hospital can turn away a patient based on ability to pay. In my line of work, 95% of my clients are Hospitals and in the last year three have been on the brink of bankruptcy, and two have actually shut their doors! And what this increase cost in services for Hospitals means for us currently is that our Insurance Rates are SKYROCKETING annually! Did you know my policy premiums went up a whopping 40% last year? 40%! And I had a very uneventful year, which mainly consisted of annual exams and a visit or two for a cold.
What about the average person that is uninsured or underinsured? If you have taken the time to read this article, you'll have read that 62% of personal bankruptcies filed are a result of medical debt. Medical debt! Seriously! There is something very wrong with that!
While we go ahead and play our tiny violins about higher taxes, I'd like to remind you that the majority of our budget deficit is a result of our wars abroad. Then, of course, there is the AIG Crisis that basically started a trickle down effect with all of those mortgage backed securities, and and the housing bubble bursting because of the crappy interest only Home Loans to unqualified borrowers. And while we are all complaining about higher taxes, I'd like to point out that other healthier and wealthier countries pay MUCH higher taxes than we do. And guess what? It guarantees that their citizens will be taken care of! Forever!
It's time for the United States to wake up! What's wrong with living within our means, obtaining affordable health coverage, and not having to go BK due to inability to pay our medical bills? The health insurance industry has skyrocketed much like the housing bubble grew and grew. It has to stop, before NO ONE can afford health coverage.
While the bill that was passed might not have ALL of the answers, or the correct solutions, there will be a series of Amendments passed to be sure that both "sides" are happy with the final product. And no, this is not socialized medicine! Everything is still privatized, just like how the majority or American prefer. The public options that have been in place for decades have not changed. And if you're not familiar with the fact that there ARE public options out there, and there have been, perhaps you need to catch on a little bit of reading. Medicare, MediCal, Medicaid, TRICARE, The Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Veterans Health Administration are ALL programs that have been around for a very long time and already cover 27.8% of the population exclusively! There is no new public option being introduced at this time, so the Socialist claims can be put to rest for the time being.
I think that my biggest message in all of this is that this shouldn't be a fight about which side wins. We need to come together to figure out some sort of solution so that every American Citizen has access to quality, affordable healthcare that won't bankrupt them- no matter what political party you belong to.
We're Americans. We are one of the wealthiest nations in the world, but we also spend the most out of pocket on medical expenses AND we are the most unhealthy (mostly because we delay going to the doctor to avoid the expenses). If we can't ALL have coverage and care, then what does that say about us collectively as a society? That we are all greedy, self-righteous, and self-centered idiots? We all know that's what the rest of the world thinks of us already, and this "healthcare" debate is making some look even worse.
