The Smiling Heart » Healthcare Reform

Immediate gratification? Has no one learned anything????

PRRussell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:41:04 +0000

Okay, I am feeling a bit frustrated beyond belief today so I am going to lay it all out. Here’s my rant:

I agree, the Republican plan was not the best. I personally don’t think nationalized (socialized) medicine is the way to go though. It will cost a fortune we do not have. What happened to personal responsibility? I shouldn’t have to pay for someone elses healthcare and by the same token you should not have to pay for mine. I don’t say that lightly either. I have been without insurance, I’ve lost jobs and had to go on COBRA to stay covered, I have been denied for pre-existing conditions, I almost went blind b/c I needed retinal surgery and I missed my pre-existing 90 day exemption period by one day! I have gone without doing a single blood sugar test for more then a year b/c it was all I could do to buy the insulin I needed. I have had insurance but paid so much for the monthly premium I couldn’t afford to see the doctor or get any tests done anyway b/c I couldn’t afford the copays and that plan didn’t even cover test strips! I have seen the ugliest of the ugly. So I don’t say these things lightly. I should be getting disability right now but I refuse. I don’t like the cards God dealt me but He dealt them to me all the same and I can take care of myself. I don’t want the govt or my neighbors paying my way. My annual healthcare costs are just north of $300,000 each year!!!!!! I am only ONE person!!! What about all the other chronically ill people? There are over 20 million Type 2 diabetics, about 3 million Type 1’s like me, then there’s MS, MD, cancer in it’s multitudes of forms and on and on…. we can’t afford it! Why should you have to pay my $300,000 a year healthcare costs when right now I am doing fine on my own? Granted, if reform is not done and costs continue to go up more and more ppl who are doing fine this year won’t be in the future and the number of uninsured will keep rising. That’s why we need reform to control costs……. socializing medicine and making you pay for my $300,000 a year is not the answer though and that’s not lowering cost! That’s everybody throwing their money into one big pot and us trusting the govt to take care of that money. Yeah right, they’ll watch over it and take real good care of it for us *rolling eyes*. Then the govt can tell me they only have so much money in the pot so I can’t have the kidney transplant I will need in (let’s just say) 20 years because….. “you’re rather old after all, Mrs. Russell, and you’ve had diabetes for 49 years.” DAMMIT!!!!! It was my money that went into the dam pot in the first place!!!!! If you’d just let me keep it and let me take care of myself I could get the dam kidney transplant!!!! Now I’ll just have to lay here quietly and die. That’s what will happen and we all know it. Right now I am doing fine on my own!!! Insurance is a priority in my life. I NEED it. I cannot live without it, literally. So I make life choices and life sacrifices to make sure I have the insurance I need. Right now, if I needed a kidney transplant and I went to a facility approved by my health insurance company I will pay NOTHING!!!!!! They would pick it up 100%!!! I did not come by this insurance by accident. I have made choices in my life specifically to line me up to have this!!! I take responsibility for me. I could have lived above my means but I didn’t so I have very little debt right now. I could have gone out and gotten a house I couldn’t really afford a few years ago but I KNEW I couldn’t afford it so I didn’t and I am still in an apartment today. So many ppl made wrong choices in their lives… bought houses they could not afford… never gave insurance a second thought until they needed it and didn’t have it. I am SO TIRED of paying a price for those ppl!!!!!!! I play by the rules of personal responsibility. Healthcare must be reformed to get costs down so ppl can afford it but just throwing everyone’s money into a big pot that they never see and handing the money back out to them that they never see is not the answer. Socialized healthcare is NOT FREE!!!!!!!! Nearly every country that has socialized medicine is currently changing things so they can get out from under the financial burden because it is destroying their countries. WHY WOULD WE DO THAT TO OURSELVES??????? For the immedicate gratification of having every single person covered even though we know a few decades down the road it will bring this country to it’s knees and our grandchildren will pay the nasty price for our immediate gratification????? It’s a HUGE problem that will take a while to fix. People will suffer in the meantime but haven’t we learned anything about immediate gratification in this society yet???? For cryin’ out loud already! As for Obama, this is all his fault. He had a choice. He could have written the bill himself and moved it into the legislative branch to get tweaked and voted on. George W. Bush did it with the Social Security reform bill and Bill Clinton did it with the Healthcare Reform bill and there have been other examples. The WH could have written this bill for the most part but he chose to hand it over to Pelosi and Reid to do. If he cared so damn much about it he should have done it himself. The truth is the American people DO NOT WANT socialized medicine. That is why it has never been passed for the past 60 years. The Dem’s need to give it up. They need to put their own selfish, power-grabbing, wanting-us-to-be-dependant-on-them desires aside and stand up and claim this issue as their own if they want it so bad. Poking it with a stick and stirring up a hornets nest every 15 years or so is not the way to do it. They need to take it slow… small steps. I think nearly all Americans no matter their political viewpoints want reform for healthcare. I am a huge State person myself but I’m from the South so it’s in my DNA. I think the States should be left to figure it out on their own for their own state. The Federal govt needs to keep their damn nose out of it. Alot of states have already developed programs to address the situation. They should be encouraged and offered some help along the way. Of course, Mass. did a terrible job with theirs… they went the socialized route and now the cost is too high… higher than the national cost…. and it’s getting worse by the day and they still don’t have everyone covered. So anyway, that’s my 2 cents. Probably enough to make some ppl really mad and others would back me. I’m just one person and that’s how I feel about it.

What about the free market?

PRRussell — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:41:49 +0000

Obama’s Healthcare Reform will mean the end of employer based healthcare plans. There will be nothing left but the govt insurance. Personally, I think there is an unhealthy relationship between employers and employees in regard to health insurance. Costs are so high that employees are now in a position where they have to get their health insurance from their employer. This puts undue stress on the companies themselves, as well. The employee can often become trapped in a job with “good benefits”. They’re unable to move on for fear of losing those benefits in today’s world by not finding another job that offers the same good benefits they currently have. It would be much better for employee and employer alike if health insurance was sold and bought like auto insurance is done. A persons health insurance plan could go with them if they decide to leave their current job in pursuit of something better for them and their family in regards to salary or wage earned. Costs have to come down though for this to be possible. The average American cannot afford healthcare without their employers help of paying a percentage of the monthly premiums. There are more than 1300 health insurance companies in this country. Can you imagine if all 1300 had to compete against each other? The health insurance industry has never faced capitalism at it’s best. The states put mandates on these companies. It’s as if there is a large fence built around each state. No insurance company in Texas is allowed to look over that fence into New Mexico and sell a policy to a New Mexican. No New Mexican is allowed to look over the fence into Texas and buy a plan from a company there. This has led to widespread monopolies through out the the health insurance industry. For example, Blue Cross Blue Shield holds 80% of all health insurance policies in the state of Alabama. They have no competition in that state so they have no incentive to try to curtail rising costs in any way they can. Monopolies destroy capitalism. So what happens if all those fences around all those states are knocked down? Now Blue Cross Blue Shield has 1299 health insurance companies they have to compete against in Alabama! Can you imagaine how much costs would drop? Now ask yourself how one health insurance company entering into the Alabama health care industry would help? That one company being Government Healthcare. Sure, Blue Cross Blue Shield has to drop prices. The government is not interested in profits or saving money. They pay the doctors and hospitals with our money. They have no incentive to keep costs down. If costs rise then they just increase taxes so they have more of our money to funnel to doctors and hospitals. BC/BS competing against 1299 other companies with all of them wanting to make a profit will build a robust industry. BC/BS having to compete with one Government Healthcare company would eventually have to close their doors. How can you compete with someone who can drop their prices b/c they have no desire to see a profit? You can’t. By the same token, as I have already stated, the government will have no incentive to keep costs down….. they’ll just increase their revenue. Their revenue is our money. It’s the fact that companies need to see a profit that costs are kept down and capitalism can work at it’s best. No need for profit=no need to keep costs down. Then you can ask yourself: What if I could buy health insurance like I do life insurance? What if I could buy a policy for a term of 20 years? In year 10 I develop cancer but wait…… I have a 20 year policy. No way the insurance company can drop me and I get treatment in full. Fast forward to year 20 and you now have to sign a new policy with your health insurance company and they say, “Well, you know…. you had cancer 10 years ago so we’ll have to charge you more for your premiums.” Okay….. charge me more…. but charge me too much and I’ll just go to a company that will sell it to me cheaper. Ahhh Haaaa……. well, you might have to pay a little more on the next term but it will be a reasonable increase because there are 1299 other companies you can go shopping at for a new plan. Obama says the government will keep health insurance companies honest. What does the mean????? He will keep them honest by making sure they don’t have fat paychecks and deny coverage? Okay… noble cause…… but tell me, Mr President, how can you do a better job at that then the free market…. then 1299 other competing companies that all want Joe American as their customer? Tell me… please.. because I do not understand.

Just my own thoughts and opinions but these are just a couple ideas that conservatives have offered in Congress and they have been shot down time and time again. Tear down the fences and let all the dogs play together…. I promise you that costs will drop.

Just in case you’re wondering…. I am not a health insurance company operative. I am not a GOP operative. I am an everyday American that is worried for her country. I, also, have 5 autoimmune diseases and require quite a bit of medical care. I have been on the receiving end of that pre-existing condition clause. My doctor had to perfom retinal surgery (victrectomy) pro bono so I wouldn’t go blind b/c my health insurance company had me missing my pre-existing condition exemption period by one day!! So… no…. I am not a lover of health insurance companies. I am a lover of capitalism though. I have seen the very worst and the very best in health insurance companies. I should be the last person anyone would expect would be fighting against Obama’s plan. I can tell you I trust capitalism to give me affordable heathcare a heck of alot more then the government. How much do I trust it? Well, it’s only my 39 year old life at stake so I’d say alot. As far as capitalism giving me excellent healthcare…. I don’t have to worry about that. We already have excellent healthcare in this country. Competing insurance companies won’t lower our level of excellence and that’s another thing my life depends on too.

47 Million Uninsured – Let’s Break That Down

PRRussell — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:11:52 +0000

Why is Healthcare Reform as it stands now from the Obama White House so unpopular? The fundamental problem President Obama is facing is that 84% of Americans are happy/satisfied with their current health insurance coverage. Remember….. the quality of care has never been an issue. The quality has been high and Americans are satisfied across the board witht he quality. Americans are very happy with the choices they currently have in the healthcare system. Don’t like what your doctor wants to do? Wonder if there’s another option rather than surgery or drug treatment? No problem…… get a second opinion. Get a third or a fourth! Diagnosed with a deadly cancer and you want to choose a specialized cancer center to go to for help…. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, for instance? Sure. Go wherever you want to go and see which ever doctor you want to see. So, let’s make it clear, the quality and freedom of America’s healthcare has never been under question. The issue is coverage. Insurance coverage for all. So back on point….. here are some numbers you need to know:

84% of Americans are happy/satisfied with their current healthcare coverage

47 million Anericans are uninsured

Lets break the 47 million down:

10 million of the 47 million are illegal aliens (that’s 20%)

3/8 of the 47 million make 50K or more a year (thus they are able to afford it but choose to not be covered for various personal reasons such as religious, good health, etc)

1/5 of the 47 million make 75K or more a year (again, this group is able to afford coverage but exercise the freedom to choose to not be covered for various reasons)

20% of the 47 million qualify for Medicare or other programs but have not enrolled (my guess would be because they don’t want or need to. Why wouldn’t you enroll? I don’t know)

10% (roughly 10%) are the working poor…. they do not qualify for Medicaid or any other government program and they do not earn enough to be able to afford coverage

_______________________

292 (roughly) million Americans are happy with their coverage, can afford it but choose not to have it or qualify for Medicare/other govt programs but have not enrolled

10 million are illegal alieans , not a citizen, that do not pay one dime in taxes to help support this country yet they do still get healthcare through emergency rooms

5 million are legitimally “stuck” and “locked” out of the system b/c they don’t qualify for govt programs and they don’t earn enough to purchase their own coverage

The fundamental problem that President Obama is facing is that even though most Americans don’t know these figures they sense it. They have a sense that the vast majority of the American citizens are satisfied with their coverage and the quality of care or simply choose to not be covered b/c they are healthy and feel they don’t need it or for religious reasons and other various reasons. Another reason, of course, is they are terrified of the govt being in control of their health.

So for 5 million ppl the Obama White House justifies taking over the healthcare system and running it themselves and forcing us to pay for it. It doesn’t look right, it doesn’t feel right, it doesn’t smell right….. and the American people know it.

Wouldn’t it be more cost efficient and smarter to design something or expand a current government program to target the 5 million left out so they can have coverage?

What about the 16% that are unhappy/dissatisfied with their coverage? I don’t know. I’m sure something could be done to help these ppl, too. I can tell you this: I have had periods in my life when I was incredibly unhappy with my insurance coverage. I have had periods when I was incredibly happy with my insurance coverage. Currently, I LOVE my coverage. I TREASURE my coverage. I was in that 16% a few different times…. thank God above I had choices and I could get to the place I am now…. happy with my coverage. Now I am part of the 84%. That’s the beauty of America (for now at least).

President Obama sees the polls….. a vast number of polls that says the American people do not want the healthcare reform he is proposing yet on August 4th, 2009 during a speech in Indiana he promised healthcare reform will be passed by the end of the year with complete disregard for what the majority wants because he says we “need it”. He says we “need it”. Think about that. Last time I checked he was not my Daddy and I was not 5 years old. I think I can decide for myself what I need or what I want or what I like or what I don’t like. Trust me, the last thing I need right now is to lose my private and wonderful healthcare coverage (that helps me manage 5 chronic autoimmune diseases) and be forced onto a govt run healthcare plan that will have the govt controlling my health. In my case, at age 39, that means controlling my life, literally. My living, breathing body in their hands. President Obama himself has put down the everyday, average American citizens that are going to town hall meetings and expressing a dislike or distrust for his proposed plan. He says we “gripe and complain” (in the same Indiana speech mentioned above) His White House has put down everyday, average American citizens for disliking or distrusting his proposed reform by telling us and the entire world that our anger, frustration, fear is not real. It’s “manufactured”. We are simply doing the bidding of far right wing groups. As if I have the time or the desire to do the bidding of those groups. I don’t like those groups, why would I do their bidding? The Democratic Congress has put down everyday, average American citizens who dislike or distrust the proposed reform plan by teeling us and the whole world that this is an “astroturf” movement. A fake grass-roots movement. As if the everday American is incapable of standing up for what we believe in. They have called us a “mob”, “crazy” and eluded to stupid and racists. The Obama White House has posted a request on the White House Blog asking that American citizens send any “fishy” material they receive in emails or see on the Internet to the White House. Apparently, the Obama White House doesn’t think twice about trampling all over the 1st Amendment, Freedom of Speech. I have never been reduced to tears because I felt my President hated me, could care less what I thought or wanted and would purposely walk all over my right to freely express myself. That is, not until now. Are you afraid? You should be. Even if you’re a hard core Democrat and love President Obama and all his proposals you better be afraid. If he gets away with treating the American people this way then one day you will be on the receiving end and you will be crying….. and I will remind you that President Obama opened the door for all of it.

Don’t like what I’ve said….. forward this to the White House at flag@whitehouse.gov. I don’t care! As of right now the 1st Amendment still stands…. as of right now I have a right to freely express my thoughts and opinions. Send it in so they can put me on a watch list. I don’t care. Arrogant thugs don’t intimidate me!