Fred, you are correct. Longer than 20 years. Pregnancy was not covered in Maryland when our son Rylan was born in 1980. It was all out of pocket, though worth every penny, if I may say. Point being that it is the states (influenced by lobbyists, that make the rules on health insurance. Not the Feds. Thus, the plight of Mary Kay and Christa, though in her case she is punished for working two or more part-time jobs, neither of which provides health insurance or premium assistance. States could easily change that. Doing away with pre-existing condition exclusions and making insurance portable and available across state lines will go a long way toward fixing their problem. And who among us doesn't have a pre-existing condition, anyway?
There is too much subterfuge in this process. Too many behind the scenes players, like lobbyists and social engineers. That is why the Clinton plan failed. It was written in secret and then sprung on congress for approval. Well that won't work; and besides nobody liked Hilary very much. Now, I for one, remember nothing about specifics of that proposal. Maybe I wasn't paying much attention in 1993. And now, the President has erred in delegating the health care reform process to the most distrusted body in the government led by Nancy Pelosi who most people don't like very much. That won't work either. There is a huge pool of citizens who know they pay too much for insurance coverage, and they are beginning to understand why. But just. That is why the issues must be aired and discussed thoroughly before any vote comes to the floor. If you believe that the system must be deep sixed, that is one position. (The President and Congress didn't think so in the cases of Wall Street or the automobile industry, though). But have we had that discussion? I don't think so. There has been little discussion as far as I know about how to repair the existing system. We need to do that. If it can't be fixed, so be it. But I think it can, and must be. Profit is not a dirty word. Hell, I'd love to make a profit. Profit(and that can be merely enjoying the fruits of one's labors) is a motivation. Fraud and inefficiency must be curtailed.
And from a business person's perspective here are some things I know. My employees are all as happy as can be expected with their CareFirst/BlueCross/Blue Shield with prescription coverage. The company pays 30% of the premiums which run about $14,000/month. It's a burden but we have managed so far (we used to pay a much larger percentage). But the proposed plan will require us to pay for a much larger percentage for both about 75% employee and 65% dependant coverage. That will be too expensive for us and we will be "forced" by circumstances to drop the coverage and join the government plan. So, while we are "allowed" to keep our coverage we won't be "able" to. It amounts to the same thing. Or, if we don't join the government plan we will have to pay an $80,000 penalty not to participate. We will all be on our own, like Mary Kay and Christa. I don't see the improvement. And my employees won't have any help with their premiums!
Cal
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Mary Kay: Inaction is Not an Option Anymore.
I understand that many viewpoints are based upon life's experiences. That said, I believe in the saying that in striving for perfection we may attain excellence, but in-action is not an option anymore.
How long should we study this before we decide to change the status quo? I've been living with this pre-existing condition clause since I was 21, pregnant with my daughter. I'm 49 now and still this issue keeps coming back around. God bless those of you who do not have a systemic disease which can be blamed for everything, and every symptom I have on any given day. Diabetes is extremely, and widely prevalent. It's not just me. Millions of americans have this disease. Some because of poor diets, lack of exercise, and genetics. Mine is genetics only. If I could change that I would. Sign me up!
BCBS will pay for 80% of my insulin pump, (retail cost $6,500.00), but not the 24hr blood glucose monitor so that I can keep my glucose levels in a healthy balance. This device is $1,000.00 + supplies. This is a financial burden for me, but not for the insurance companies. The financial burden of the long term affects of Diabetes is much more costly. One trip to the E.R. and 4 days in the hospital would cost the insurance company 6x the one-time cost of the monitor. Tell me how this makes sense. "Well Care" is much less expensive in the short and long term.
I have two choices: Hope that change takes place, so that I can remain self employed, or declare bankruptcy, so that I can afford to work for the Park Service and have their health insurance. It's a great job, but won't pay for my small business loans.
By the way, on a lighter note - It makes me smile that I have family out there!
Really late for work! Gotta go.
Mary Kay
How long should we study this before we decide to change the status quo? I've been living with this pre-existing condition clause since I was 21, pregnant with my daughter. I'm 49 now and still this issue keeps coming back around. God bless those of you who do not have a systemic disease which can be blamed for everything, and every symptom I have on any given day. Diabetes is extremely, and widely prevalent. It's not just me. Millions of americans have this disease. Some because of poor diets, lack of exercise, and genetics. Mine is genetics only. If I could change that I would. Sign me up!
BCBS will pay for 80% of my insulin pump, (retail cost $6,500.00), but not the 24hr blood glucose monitor so that I can keep my glucose levels in a healthy balance. This device is $1,000.00 + supplies. This is a financial burden for me, but not for the insurance companies. The financial burden of the long term affects of Diabetes is much more costly. One trip to the E.R. and 4 days in the hospital would cost the insurance company 6x the one-time cost of the monitor. Tell me how this makes sense. "Well Care" is much less expensive in the short and long term.
I have two choices: Hope that change takes place, so that I can remain self employed, or declare bankruptcy, so that I can afford to work for the Park Service and have their health insurance. It's a great job, but won't pay for my small business loans.
By the way, on a lighter note - It makes me smile that I have family out there!
Really late for work! Gotta go.
Mary Kay
Fred: Reform is Long Overdue
Hello, everyone.
Hmmm...seems to me this issue has been on the table for at least twenty years. We've all been aware of it, and it has been discussed repeatedly during that time. So I don't see much hurry, actually. The opposite, in fact. Some kind of reform is long overdue, and we've all known for along time that something has to be done.
I think Obama has tried hard to include representatives of all the key groups (doctors, hospitals, AARP, insurance companies, patient advocates, etc.) in the discussions of how to formulate a plan, so it seems like it's just the kind of thoughtful, considered approach that George says he'd like to see. We--the citzenry at large, not just our elected representatives--even we are now getting the chance to weigh in with our opinions (whether we know anything about the issues or not). Congress will vote on their plan(s) after they have heard from us during this recess. Given the complexities of governing 300 million people, this seems like a pretty inclusive process to me, not something being rammed down our throats.
What has been rammed down our throats is the present system, in which insurance company profits largely determine whether one can get, and afford, meaningful health coverage or not. (No wonder that it's one of the most profitable of all industry sectors.) That gagging sound you hear is our population choking on insurance rates that are ruinous for more and more of the people who can get coverage, or living with their hearts in their mouths because they have no coverage at all. This is a system that needs to be changed!
Best, -Fred
Hmmm...seems to me this issue has been on the table for at least twenty years. We've all been aware of it, and it has been discussed repeatedly during that time. So I don't see much hurry, actually. The opposite, in fact. Some kind of reform is long overdue, and we've all known for along time that something has to be done.
I think Obama has tried hard to include representatives of all the key groups (doctors, hospitals, AARP, insurance companies, patient advocates, etc.) in the discussions of how to formulate a plan, so it seems like it's just the kind of thoughtful, considered approach that George says he'd like to see. We--the citzenry at large, not just our elected representatives--even we are now getting the chance to weigh in with our opinions (whether we know anything about the issues or not). Congress will vote on their plan(s) after they have heard from us during this recess. Given the complexities of governing 300 million people, this seems like a pretty inclusive process to me, not something being rammed down our throats.
What has been rammed down our throats is the present system, in which insurance company profits largely determine whether one can get, and afford, meaningful health coverage or not. (No wonder that it's one of the most profitable of all industry sectors.) That gagging sound you hear is our population choking on insurance rates that are ruinous for more and more of the people who can get coverage, or living with their hearts in their mouths because they have no coverage at all. This is a system that needs to be changed!
Best, -Fred
George: White House Propoganda vs. Study and Debate
This sounds like pure White House propaganda, which I have already received from them directly, thank you.
My concern is that the Obama plan, in trying to fix aspects of U.S. healthcare that don't work, will louse up the parts that do work, leaving us all worse off and with big financial problems too.
Like most full-time working people, I have medical coverage through my employer which uses a private insurer, and am fairly happy with it, though it is expensive. My fear is that a government plan can always put private insurers out of business eventually, not because it is truly more efficient but because a government program can operate indefinitely at a loss, and a private company can't do that. The result will be LESS CHOICE.
Are the President and the senators and representatives and their families, and all federal workers, going to depend on the Obama proposal for their health insurance? No. They have no intention of giving up the very nice plan they already have. It contains lots of choices, and it is subsidized by the other taxpayers ---- us. They cannot extend this to all Americans because then the funding would be insufficient. As Margaret Thatcher observed, "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
I firmly believe that this complicated problem needs to be studied and debated. We all understand that there is a need for a way to help deserving and hard working citizens like Christa or Mary Kay, who for various reasons cannot get health insurance coverage. In this great country there surely can be found a sensible solution to this situation. But medical care is very expensive and there is no use pretending that it's free. Somebody has to pay for it.
The reason people are disturbed is that a bunch of privileged politicians are attempting to shove this massive and expensive program down our throats in a big hurry, without debate, and whether we want it or not. Their arrogance deserves to be repudiated.
George
My concern is that the Obama plan, in trying to fix aspects of U.S. healthcare that don't work, will louse up the parts that do work, leaving us all worse off and with big financial problems too.
Like most full-time working people, I have medical coverage through my employer which uses a private insurer, and am fairly happy with it, though it is expensive. My fear is that a government plan can always put private insurers out of business eventually, not because it is truly more efficient but because a government program can operate indefinitely at a loss, and a private company can't do that. The result will be LESS CHOICE.
Are the President and the senators and representatives and their families, and all federal workers, going to depend on the Obama proposal for their health insurance? No. They have no intention of giving up the very nice plan they already have. It contains lots of choices, and it is subsidized by the other taxpayers ---- us. They cannot extend this to all Americans because then the funding would be insufficient. As Margaret Thatcher observed, "The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."
I firmly believe that this complicated problem needs to be studied and debated. We all understand that there is a need for a way to help deserving and hard working citizens like Christa or Mary Kay, who for various reasons cannot get health insurance coverage. In this great country there surely can be found a sensible solution to this situation. But medical care is very expensive and there is no use pretending that it's free. Somebody has to pay for it.
The reason people are disturbed is that a bunch of privileged politicians are attempting to shove this massive and expensive program down our throats in a big hurry, without debate, and whether we want it or not. Their arrogance deserves to be repudiated.
George
Fred: Addressing Misinformation
Hello, everyone.
Here's some information about misinformation (aka "lies") that is being spread about the health care reform plans now being discussed. I hope it helps clear the air in discussing these issues--real information, rather than misrepresentations, can do that. If you're interested in following any of these things up, you'll find sources at the end of the piece I've pasted in.
Best, -Fred
Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!
The truth: These accusations—of "death panels" and forced euthanasia—are, of course, flatly untrue. As an article from the Associated Press puts it: "No 'death panel' in health care bill."4 What's the real deal? Reform legislation includes a provision, supported by the AARP, to offer senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor who will provide them with information on preparing a living will and other issues facing older Americans.5
Lie #2: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan!!!
The truth: With reform, choices will increase, not decrease. Obama's reform plans will create a health insurance exchange, a one-stop shopping marketplace for affordable, high-quality insurance options.6 Included in the exchange is the public health insurance option—a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers—that will operate alongside private insurance companies, injecting competition into the market to drive quality up and costs down.7
If you're happy with your coverage and doctors, you can keep them.8 But the new public plan will expand choices to millions of businesses or individuals who choose to opt into it, including many who simply can't afford health care now.
Lie #3: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing!!!
The truth: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage. Right now, big corporations decide whether to give you coverage, what doctors you get to see, and whether a particular procedure or medicine is covered—that is rationed care. And a big part of reform is to stop that.
Health care reform will do away with some of the most nefarious aspects of this rationing: discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers that cancel coverage when you get sick, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage.9 And outside of that, as noted above, reform will increase insurance options, not force anyone into a rationed situation.
Lie #4: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens' Medicare benefits!!!
The truth: Health care reform plans will not reduce Medicare benefits.10 Reform includes savings from Medicare that are unrelated to patient care—in fact, the savings comes from cutting billions of dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.11
Lie #5: Obama's health care plan will bankrupt America!!!
The truth: We need health care reform now in order to prevent bankruptcy—to control spiraling costs that affect individuals, families, small businesses, and the American economy.
Right now, we spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care.12
The average family premium is projected to rise to over $22,000 in the next decade13—and each year, nearly a million people face bankruptcy because of medical expenses.14 Reform, with an affordable, high-quality public option that can spur competition, is necessary to bring down skyrocketing costs. Also, President Obama's reform plans would be fully paid for over 10 years and not add a penny to the deficit.15
++++++++
Check out the new White House "Reality Check" website:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/ or this excellent
piece from Health Care for America Now on some of the most
outrageous lies:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51729&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=1
Sources:
1. "More 'Town Halls Gone Wild': Angry Far Right Protesters Disrupt Events With 'Incomprehensible' Yelling," Think Progress, August 4, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51733&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=2
2. "Fight the smears," Health Care for America NOW, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51729&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=3
3. "Palin Paints Picture of 'Obama Death Panel' Giving Thumbs Down to Trig," ABC News, August 7, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51728&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=4
4. "No 'death panel' in health care bill," The Associated Press, August 10, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51747&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=5
5. "Stop Distorting the Truth about End of Life Care," The Huffington Post, July 24, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51730&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=6
6. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 11, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#i1
7. "Why We Need a Public Health-Care Plan," The Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51737&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=7
8. "Obama: 'If You Like Your Doctor, You Can Keep Your Doctor,'" The Wall Street Journal, 15, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51736&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=8
9. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#r1
10. "Obama: No reduced Medicare benefits in health care reform," CNN, July 28, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51748&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=9
11. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#s1
12. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#c1
13. "Premiums Run Amok," Center for American Progress, July 24, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51667&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=10
14. "Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies," CNN, June 5, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51735&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=11
15. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#c1
Sources for the Five Lies:
#1: "A euthanasia mandate," The Washington Times, July 29, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51732&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=12
#2: "It's Not An Option," Investor's Business Daily, July 15, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51743&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=13
#3: "Rationing Health Care," The Washington Times, April 21, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51742&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=14
#4: "60 Plus Ad Is Chock Full Of Misinformation," Media Matters for America, August 8, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51734&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=15
#5: "Obama's 'Public' Health Plan Will Bankrupt the Nation,"The National Review, May 13, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51744&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=16
Here's some information about misinformation (aka "lies") that is being spread about the health care reform plans now being discussed. I hope it helps clear the air in discussing these issues--real information, rather than misrepresentations, can do that. If you're interested in following any of these things up, you'll find sources at the end of the piece I've pasted in.
Best, -Fred
Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!
The truth: These accusations—of "death panels" and forced euthanasia—are, of course, flatly untrue. As an article from the Associated Press puts it: "No 'death panel' in health care bill."4 What's the real deal? Reform legislation includes a provision, supported by the AARP, to offer senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor who will provide them with information on preparing a living will and other issues facing older Americans.5
Lie #2: Democrats are going to outlaw private insurance and force you into a government plan!!!
The truth: With reform, choices will increase, not decrease. Obama's reform plans will create a health insurance exchange, a one-stop shopping marketplace for affordable, high-quality insurance options.6 Included in the exchange is the public health insurance option—a nationwide plan with a broad network of providers—that will operate alongside private insurance companies, injecting competition into the market to drive quality up and costs down.7
If you're happy with your coverage and doctors, you can keep them.8 But the new public plan will expand choices to millions of businesses or individuals who choose to opt into it, including many who simply can't afford health care now.
Lie #3: President Obama wants to implement Soviet-style rationing!!!
The truth: Health care reform will expand access to high-quality health insurance, and give individuals, families, and businesses more choices for coverage. Right now, big corporations decide whether to give you coverage, what doctors you get to see, and whether a particular procedure or medicine is covered—that is rationed care. And a big part of reform is to stop that.
Health care reform will do away with some of the most nefarious aspects of this rationing: discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers that cancel coverage when you get sick, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage.9 And outside of that, as noted above, reform will increase insurance options, not force anyone into a rationed situation.
Lie #4: Obama is secretly plotting to cut senior citizens' Medicare benefits!!!
The truth: Health care reform plans will not reduce Medicare benefits.10 Reform includes savings from Medicare that are unrelated to patient care—in fact, the savings comes from cutting billions of dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.11
Lie #5: Obama's health care plan will bankrupt America!!!
The truth: We need health care reform now in order to prevent bankruptcy—to control spiraling costs that affect individuals, families, small businesses, and the American economy.
Right now, we spend more than $2 trillion dollars a year on health care.12
The average family premium is projected to rise to over $22,000 in the next decade13—and each year, nearly a million people face bankruptcy because of medical expenses.14 Reform, with an affordable, high-quality public option that can spur competition, is necessary to bring down skyrocketing costs. Also, President Obama's reform plans would be fully paid for over 10 years and not add a penny to the deficit.15
++++++++
Check out the new White House "Reality Check" website:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/ or this excellent
piece from Health Care for America Now on some of the most
outrageous lies:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51729&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=1
Sources:
1. "More 'Town Halls Gone Wild': Angry Far Right Protesters Disrupt Events With 'Incomprehensible' Yelling," Think Progress, August 4, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51733&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=2
2. "Fight the smears," Health Care for America NOW, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51729&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=3
3. "Palin Paints Picture of 'Obama Death Panel' Giving Thumbs Down to Trig," ABC News, August 7, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51728&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=4
4. "No 'death panel' in health care bill," The Associated Press, August 10, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51747&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=5
5. "Stop Distorting the Truth about End of Life Care," The Huffington Post, July 24, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51730&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=6
6. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 11, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#i1
7. "Why We Need a Public Health-Care Plan," The Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51737&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=7
8. "Obama: 'If You Like Your Doctor, You Can Keep Your Doctor,'" The Wall Street Journal, 15, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51736&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=8
9. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#r1
10. "Obama: No reduced Medicare benefits in health care reform," CNN, July 28, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51748&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=9
11. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#s1
12. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#c1
13. "Premiums Run Amok," Center for American Progress, July 24, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51667&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=10
14. "Medical bills prompt more than 60 percent of U.S. bankruptcies," CNN, June 5, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51735&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=11
15. "Reality Check FAQs," WhiteHouse.gov, accessed August 10, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/faq#c1
Sources for the Five Lies:
#1: "A euthanasia mandate," The Washington Times, July 29, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51732&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=12
#2: "It's Not An Option," Investor's Business Daily, July 15, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51743&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=13
#3: "Rationing Health Care," The Washington Times, April 21, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51742&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=14
#4: "60 Plus Ad Is Chock Full Of Misinformation," Media Matters for America, August 8, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51734&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=15
#5: "Obama's 'Public' Health Plan Will Bankrupt the Nation,"The National Review, May 13, 2009.
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51744&id=16778-583204-NtCpPkx&t=16
Monday, August 10, 2009
Mary Kay: Write to your Representatives.
Cal,
Thanks for your input. I am volunteering to visit Roscoe Bartletts' office this Thursday to voice my support for the proposed bill. I've attached a letter I wrote for whoever wants to read. I've also emailed it to the White House. Don't know if it will help, but can't hurt. I'll send the link for the bill and office visit guide under separate email.
I hope all is well with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Mary Kay
The Reality of Health Insurance
I am self-employed. Two is a group. Since I've had to cut my work force and their hours I’ve lost my group coverage and they’ve lost theirs. I have Type 1 Diabetes and other health issues which means I have pre-existing conditions. Unless I'm a part of a group, Health Insurance will not cover anything that has to do with my Diabetes of 28 years, Asthma, my lower back, serious allergies, or serious IBS. My insulin alone cost me $279.00/month after the Medicare discount card. I had no other prescription drug coverage between 10/1/08 and 4/1/09. My health insurance coverage of more than 10 years was cancelled and I had to go onto a conversion policy on 10/1/08, with no dental or prescription drug coverage.
Also, because I’ve had to cut my employees’ hours, they are not eligible for health insurance, nor can I afford it now because of the economy.
So on 4/1/09, I had to beg to go on my husbands’ health insurance. I had no other choice. Which wouldn’t seem bad but we are separated and will be divorcing in 2010. When he divorced his first wife, he changed the deductible to $1,200.00. He gives his employees a check for the $1,200.00 to cover it. His ex-wife gets alimony. I get neither. So I was forced to buy my insulin from Nova Scotia because it was $125.00 instead of paying almost $400.00 for the insulin and running it through my husbands’ health insurance against the deductible. I didn’t have the $400.00 to pay for something so basic. I would be dead without it. The insulin didn’t come in the 10 – 12 days like it was supposed to. So I ran out and had to call the doctor late at night on the weekend to get another prescription for one vial. I thought I could buy it without a prescription. Some kinds can be. Mine, Novolog, cannot. My pharmacy in Boonsboro was closed. I was alone, afraid and in tears. In addition to not having control over my deductible, my husband has threatened to cancel me if I don’t do what he wants with other issues that have nothing to do with health insurance, even though he promised it would be good for 1 year. The second time he threatened to cancel my health insurance was the day after I left him a message that I’d broken my arm.
What it comes down to is that I need to be able to make my own choices for coverage, doctors, prescription coverage and the premiums I can afford to pay. If I could get coverage on my own without having two as a group, and the insurance would cover my pre-existing conditions, I would feel so much more secure.
Lastly, the deduction we receive for paying for health insurance is only 50% of what we actually pay for ourselves and our employees and it’s not on the Schedule C. The credit is taken on the 1040 which reduces our AGI only, so we’re still paying social security taxes on the health insurance premiums we pay, in addition to Federal and State taxes on half.
Every day that I have health insurance coverage, I thank God, even though my husband continues to threaten canceling my coverage. I’ve been without before and not only are there the many, many medicals bills, there is also the issue of feeling like a second class citizen when the emergency room sends you out the door after giving you so many drugs that you can’t put on your own sweat pants. The first question out of any medical providers’ mouth is: “What insurance do you have?” If an individual doesn’t have insurance they either won’t take you as a patient or you have to pay up front. In addition, without coverage, individuals don’t receive the benefit of the discounted, contract price the insurance companies get. An individual pays the full price. The Conversion policy I was on only provided 75/25 coverage and a hospital stay in CCU in February 09 left me with thousands of dollars in medical bills I can’t afford to pay.
As far as I can tell, these issues would be resolved with the bill currently proposed.
Sincerely,
Mary Kay
Thanks for your input. I am volunteering to visit Roscoe Bartletts' office this Thursday to voice my support for the proposed bill. I've attached a letter I wrote for whoever wants to read. I've also emailed it to the White House. Don't know if it will help, but can't hurt. I'll send the link for the bill and office visit guide under separate email.
I hope all is well with family and friends.
Sincerely,
Mary Kay
The Reality of Health Insurance
I am self-employed. Two is a group. Since I've had to cut my work force and their hours I’ve lost my group coverage and they’ve lost theirs. I have Type 1 Diabetes and other health issues which means I have pre-existing conditions. Unless I'm a part of a group, Health Insurance will not cover anything that has to do with my Diabetes of 28 years, Asthma, my lower back, serious allergies, or serious IBS. My insulin alone cost me $279.00/month after the Medicare discount card. I had no other prescription drug coverage between 10/1/08 and 4/1/09. My health insurance coverage of more than 10 years was cancelled and I had to go onto a conversion policy on 10/1/08, with no dental or prescription drug coverage.
Also, because I’ve had to cut my employees’ hours, they are not eligible for health insurance, nor can I afford it now because of the economy.
So on 4/1/09, I had to beg to go on my husbands’ health insurance. I had no other choice. Which wouldn’t seem bad but we are separated and will be divorcing in 2010. When he divorced his first wife, he changed the deductible to $1,200.00. He gives his employees a check for the $1,200.00 to cover it. His ex-wife gets alimony. I get neither. So I was forced to buy my insulin from Nova Scotia because it was $125.00 instead of paying almost $400.00 for the insulin and running it through my husbands’ health insurance against the deductible. I didn’t have the $400.00 to pay for something so basic. I would be dead without it. The insulin didn’t come in the 10 – 12 days like it was supposed to. So I ran out and had to call the doctor late at night on the weekend to get another prescription for one vial. I thought I could buy it without a prescription. Some kinds can be. Mine, Novolog, cannot. My pharmacy in Boonsboro was closed. I was alone, afraid and in tears. In addition to not having control over my deductible, my husband has threatened to cancel me if I don’t do what he wants with other issues that have nothing to do with health insurance, even though he promised it would be good for 1 year. The second time he threatened to cancel my health insurance was the day after I left him a message that I’d broken my arm.
What it comes down to is that I need to be able to make my own choices for coverage, doctors, prescription coverage and the premiums I can afford to pay. If I could get coverage on my own without having two as a group, and the insurance would cover my pre-existing conditions, I would feel so much more secure.
Lastly, the deduction we receive for paying for health insurance is only 50% of what we actually pay for ourselves and our employees and it’s not on the Schedule C. The credit is taken on the 1040 which reduces our AGI only, so we’re still paying social security taxes on the health insurance premiums we pay, in addition to Federal and State taxes on half.
Every day that I have health insurance coverage, I thank God, even though my husband continues to threaten canceling my coverage. I’ve been without before and not only are there the many, many medicals bills, there is also the issue of feeling like a second class citizen when the emergency room sends you out the door after giving you so many drugs that you can’t put on your own sweat pants. The first question out of any medical providers’ mouth is: “What insurance do you have?” If an individual doesn’t have insurance they either won’t take you as a patient or you have to pay up front. In addition, without coverage, individuals don’t receive the benefit of the discounted, contract price the insurance companies get. An individual pays the full price. The Conversion policy I was on only provided 75/25 coverage and a hospital stay in CCU in February 09 left me with thousands of dollars in medical bills I can’t afford to pay.
As far as I can tell, these issues would be resolved with the bill currently proposed.
Sincerely,
Mary Kay
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Cal: The Government Does Not Have the Answers.
Hello Again Friends and Family.
Boy, what a crazy few weeks. It appears that providence has prevented Congress from rushing through a health care reform, the details of which we were apparently not meant to know and which the supportive representatives themselves would not have read had they voted on it when they wanted. That is the first victory and great opportunity in this skirmish.
The representatives have gone home for August and actually believed they would be allowed to offer their usual non-answer platitudes to their constituents questions. Is anyone besides them surprised at the passionate responses they received? That’s how out of touch they are. We had the fragile and hapless Arlen Specter stunned by the anger, literally rolling his eyes back in his head, and Kathleen Sibelius defending him by saying he shouldn’t be blamed for not reading the bill because it hadn’t been written yet. BUT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE VOTED ON IT ALREADY! Can these people even think?
Now, I don’t know if the protestors were plants, but they certainly didn’t look like plants. They looked like me. And I am no THUG. I am, and I personally know every recipient of this message is, reserved and gentle by nature. I’m sure all of us are uncomfortable with all the yelling. Yet, it seems to me this is a result of the fact that we have had no previous input (except for voting these people into office) and that there has little actual open discussion of the provisions of the bill, and that it has been the obvious intention of bill’s proponents to shove this thing through without due process. I am every bit as angry as the vocal protestors about that.
The rhetoric seems to be subsiding a little now, with more moderate statements on both sides. Even my local liberal Washington Post has published much more reasonable editorials and columns lately. My local conservative Washington Times has done the same. And therein lies what I believe is the golden opportunity offered by the September 12 Tea Parties.
I doubt that any of us opposes health care reform. Costs are way out of control, pre-existing condition exclusions are obscene and need to be eliminated, insurance should be portable and available across state lines, people who want health insurance (and are willing to pay for it, at least in part) should be able to get it.. Each of us should be able to purchase insurance in the same way we buy car insurance, in my opinion. All reasonable goals, I think. And I think most of the perhaps hundreds of thousands (or more) participants in the 9/12 gatherings would agree to a great extent. The extremists on the right and left are drunk on their obsessions and aren’t even listening. They blather on.
So my hope and belief is that the Tea Parties will be a meeting of reasonable people with reasonable ideas from all walks of life, politics, and ideology; that the events will serve as an expression of the justified disgust and contempt for the corrupt and cynical politicians, and that they will expose the ideological socialist radicals in congress such as Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank and the others who believe the government should handle everything. Does Pelosi actually think the protestors are Nazis? Last I looked fascists were the politicians who stifled free expression and promoted government control of business and programs. (Most fascist movements and tendencies in the 20th century grew out of the LEFT not the right, after all. Eugenics-progressives, whose list of proponents included T. Roosevelt, W. Wilson, W. Churchhill, O. W. Holmes, L. Brandeis, H. G. Wells, G.B Shaw, and M. Sanger-Planned Parenthood—and whose research was conducted at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins; Hitler/Mussolini-progressive socialists killed 6,000,000; Stalin-communist killed 25,000,000.) Sorry for that little side trip digression down memory lane. But as Yogi Berra said: “ You could look it up.”
So I urge everyone to take part in their local Tea Party, to meet the multitudes of reasonable Americans merely exercising their God-given (not government given) constitutional rights, and to hear their reasonable ideas. Join them in demanding that the politicians re-establish and maintain transparency in government. Stop bankrupting the nation. Cut taxes, do no not raise them Congress and the White House need to hear the passionate, intelligent and measured voices of regular Americans demanding that their motivation needs to be the good of the people and not what will get them elected or strengthen their power base. This goes for both parties. The lunatic far left and the crazy far right will be conspicuous by their exile to the shadows under the elm trees lining Constitution and Independence Avenues. The real events will be held front and center, in the open, on the broad green, in front of the Capitol and the State Houses across the country. We must awaken from the slumber we have settled back into since 9/11. The nation is in peril from within and from without. Please join this watershed beginning of the taking back of our Country. We cannot allow the special interests, the lobbyists, and their stooges in the government to fool and distract us into squandering the nation’s collective outrage. We don’t get this mad very often. 9/11 was the last time and President Bush’s greatest blunder, I believe, was in letting that opportunity get away. This time we must do it ourselves! THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE THE ANSWERS! What say you?
Your friend and/or cousin+-
Cal.
Boy, what a crazy few weeks. It appears that providence has prevented Congress from rushing through a health care reform, the details of which we were apparently not meant to know and which the supportive representatives themselves would not have read had they voted on it when they wanted. That is the first victory and great opportunity in this skirmish.
The representatives have gone home for August and actually believed they would be allowed to offer their usual non-answer platitudes to their constituents questions. Is anyone besides them surprised at the passionate responses they received? That’s how out of touch they are. We had the fragile and hapless Arlen Specter stunned by the anger, literally rolling his eyes back in his head, and Kathleen Sibelius defending him by saying he shouldn’t be blamed for not reading the bill because it hadn’t been written yet. BUT THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE VOTED ON IT ALREADY! Can these people even think?
Now, I don’t know if the protestors were plants, but they certainly didn’t look like plants. They looked like me. And I am no THUG. I am, and I personally know every recipient of this message is, reserved and gentle by nature. I’m sure all of us are uncomfortable with all the yelling. Yet, it seems to me this is a result of the fact that we have had no previous input (except for voting these people into office) and that there has little actual open discussion of the provisions of the bill, and that it has been the obvious intention of bill’s proponents to shove this thing through without due process. I am every bit as angry as the vocal protestors about that.
The rhetoric seems to be subsiding a little now, with more moderate statements on both sides. Even my local liberal Washington Post has published much more reasonable editorials and columns lately. My local conservative Washington Times has done the same. And therein lies what I believe is the golden opportunity offered by the September 12 Tea Parties.
I doubt that any of us opposes health care reform. Costs are way out of control, pre-existing condition exclusions are obscene and need to be eliminated, insurance should be portable and available across state lines, people who want health insurance (and are willing to pay for it, at least in part) should be able to get it.. Each of us should be able to purchase insurance in the same way we buy car insurance, in my opinion. All reasonable goals, I think. And I think most of the perhaps hundreds of thousands (or more) participants in the 9/12 gatherings would agree to a great extent. The extremists on the right and left are drunk on their obsessions and aren’t even listening. They blather on.
So my hope and belief is that the Tea Parties will be a meeting of reasonable people with reasonable ideas from all walks of life, politics, and ideology; that the events will serve as an expression of the justified disgust and contempt for the corrupt and cynical politicians, and that they will expose the ideological socialist radicals in congress such as Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank and the others who believe the government should handle everything. Does Pelosi actually think the protestors are Nazis? Last I looked fascists were the politicians who stifled free expression and promoted government control of business and programs. (Most fascist movements and tendencies in the 20th century grew out of the LEFT not the right, after all. Eugenics-progressives, whose list of proponents included T. Roosevelt, W. Wilson, W. Churchhill, O. W. Holmes, L. Brandeis, H. G. Wells, G.B Shaw, and M. Sanger-Planned Parenthood—and whose research was conducted at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Johns Hopkins; Hitler/Mussolini-progressive socialists killed 6,000,000; Stalin-communist killed 25,000,000.) Sorry for that little side trip digression down memory lane. But as Yogi Berra said: “ You could look it up.”
So I urge everyone to take part in their local Tea Party, to meet the multitudes of reasonable Americans merely exercising their God-given (not government given) constitutional rights, and to hear their reasonable ideas. Join them in demanding that the politicians re-establish and maintain transparency in government. Stop bankrupting the nation. Cut taxes, do no not raise them Congress and the White House need to hear the passionate, intelligent and measured voices of regular Americans demanding that their motivation needs to be the good of the people and not what will get them elected or strengthen their power base. This goes for both parties. The lunatic far left and the crazy far right will be conspicuous by their exile to the shadows under the elm trees lining Constitution and Independence Avenues. The real events will be held front and center, in the open, on the broad green, in front of the Capitol and the State Houses across the country. We must awaken from the slumber we have settled back into since 9/11. The nation is in peril from within and from without. Please join this watershed beginning of the taking back of our Country. We cannot allow the special interests, the lobbyists, and their stooges in the government to fool and distract us into squandering the nation’s collective outrage. We don’t get this mad very often. 9/11 was the last time and President Bush’s greatest blunder, I believe, was in letting that opportunity get away. This time we must do it ourselves! THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT HAVE THE ANSWERS! What say you?
Your friend and/or cousin+-
Cal.
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