I don't know how many of you feel on the subject of health care reform, whether you are for or against it, whether you believe there should be a single payer system or a public option or if we should just leave it alone and let the market do what it's been doing. However, I do know that you are all intelligent, caring adults who may have something to gain and much to lose if we don't change the way that we approach and pay for health care in this country.
Some facts:
- A report from the American Journal of Medicine found that in 2007, 62 percent of declared bankruptcies were by people with staggering medical bills—even though 80 percent of them actually had health insurance.
- A report issued by the Department of Health and Human Services found that only 48 percent of working women are able to get health coverage at work compared with 57 percent of men. (That's mainly because women are more likely to work part time, which leaves them ineligible for insurance.)
- A recent national survey estimated that 12.6 million non-elderly adults5 – 36 percent of those who tried to purchase health insurance directly from an insurance company in the individual insurance market – were in fact discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition in the previous three years.6
- In most states’ individual insurance market, insurance companies can retroactively cancel the entire policy if any condition was missed – even if the medical condition is unrelated, and even if the person was not aware of the condition at the time. Coverage can also be revoked for all members of a family, even if only one family member failed to disclose a medical condition.10
- Seven falsehoods about health care reform
- Information about a single payer system though the whole site seems like a good resource.
- The President's page. There is a lot of information here as well as more personal stories.
If you have time, read one (or all) of these stories or go to the President's page on health care for more information...
- About a woman who had leukemia and how she became uninsurable...
- About a man who thought he was insured whose kidneys started to fail and how his "insurance" was able to deny his claims for treatment...
- About how individual insurance policies are written to deny specific types of care that they claim to cover...
Then, if any of this makes you angry or changes your mind about reform, please, do something about it.
Talk about it.
Blog about it.
Write or call your congress person or senator.
Blog about it.
Write or call your congress person or senator.
Write or call ALL of the congress people and senators.
Attend a town meeting.
Attend a town meeting.
And, if after reading any or all of this, you still don't think the need for reform is necessary and urgent, then think about me.
Because I am pretty uninsurable in the individual market.
I have Rheumatoid arthritis, which is pretty much under control, but which once on my health record, won't allow me to purchase a policy of any type for any price in most states. The only option for me then is individual state run insurance, if that is available to me in the state I am living in. In DC, CareFirst has a program through the city that will insure me. For a price. If not, my only other options are to be uninsured or make so little money that I qualify for Medicaid. I can't begin to think about leaving the "traditional" workforce to freelance my photography or start my own business, to go back to school full time, or to consider working for a very small business which does not carry insurance for its employees. I, and millions like me, am hindered in the pursuit of jobs and dreams because we can't afford to be uninsured and can't get or afford adequate insurance on our own.
Thanks for reading my rant. If nothing else, I hope you'll be better informed than you were ten minutes ago.
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