Back in Action

I tend to only blog when something is important to me. This time around - its the debate surrounding health care reform. A close family friend recently told me that her six-year old child hasn't been covered in three years because she has acid-reflux and there isn't a health insurance company that would insure her. They won't insure a 3-year old because of heart burn??? WTF! God forbid something terrible happen to her. Their family could be bankrupted if she falls off of the monkey bars and breaks her arm - perhaps requiring surgery to the tune of 10's of thousands of dollars.

Which brings me to my next point. Close to 60% of the 1.5 million bankruptcies being filed this year are due to medical bills. 75% of thoes people HAVE insurance but claims were denied. One crucial talking point of the right wing is that having the government involved, that you would be letting beauracrats make medical decisions for you......NEWSFLASH: THEY ALREADY DO. They are just subsequently lining their pockets with our premiums. There is one health insurance CEO that is making $150 million per year. And my friend's chid can't have insurance because of heart burn.

"Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness."

The average bankrupt person surveyed had spent $13,460 on co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services if they had private insurance. People with no insurance spent an average of $10,893 for such out-of-pocket expenses. How can it cost MORE to be insured than to not be?? I'm sorry if this makes no sense to me....

Don't buy into the BS that the media is trying to sell you. Do some research and read the bill as its being presented. The goal is not to eliminate private insurance, its goal is to try to make health care accessible and affordable to every single American by offering a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete.

People fail to realize that they pay for those who are uninsured anyways - through the form of their health insurance premiums. You are also penalized if you get sick. I had knee surgery this year, now next year when our company goes in for coverage review, they are going to come back with high rates, because of me. And my company and/or co-workers will have to foot the bill. The bill that insurance companies should pay for since we pay so much in premiums.

More facts and figures:

• The United States has the 2nd most costly health care.
• We rank 37th in the world for quality of health care.
• The insurance companies retained a surpluss of over $600 billion by the end of 2006, which is higher than the GDP of 193 countries.
• If you are a woman, you pay more for health insurance.
• Right now, providers in Illinois lose over $2.1 billion in bad debt which often gets passed along to families in the form of a hidden premium “tax”.
• In IL, the largest insurer carries 52% of the insured population....where is the competition for quality health care at an affordable rate?

This is just the beginning......pay attention and don't be caught buying into the big "town hall" uprising crap. There are actually groups out there that are teaching people how to disrupt a town hall meeting that state representatives are hosting to make it look like tons of people are up in arms over health care reform.

Toni