Cranky About The Issue Of Health Insurance
January 17, 2008 - Author: newscoma - Comments are closedI am very serious when I tell you that I think mandatory health insurance scares me. After reading this column by Jamie Court at the Huffington Post, there are a couple of things that bother me.
You back, good.
Now, the first thing that bothers me about the entire situation is the fact the California General Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez used law enforcement to keep a consumer advocacy group to be detained outside of the state capital. From what I read, it was just the group speaking out about mandatory health insurance, citing they were not happy with Ah-nold’s plan. The situation happened in California.
The other thing that really struck a chord with me was this graph.
The Capitol belongs to all of us, not the Speaker of the Assembly. The fact that Speaker Núñez thinks so little of the uninsured that he is willing to throw them out in the cold rather than have their voices heard in the Capitol speaks volumes about the true intent of his health care plan. It’s also a metaphor for everything that’s wrong with Nunez’s mandatory purchase plan: it polices the uninsured, not the insurance companies.
I’m none to happy with insurance companies right now. (And politicians who won’t let people comment on disagreeing with policy, I might add.) I think if you tried to have a dialogue with me about the beauty of health insurance in the next few days, I would aggressively and angrily throw a sheep at you. I don’t have a sheep, but by God, I’d find one.
The personal stories I’ve heard, and been involved with, in the past few years have made me wonder. Gas is $3 bucks a gallon, milk continues to rise, food is going up and sometimes when you have to make the decision of whether or not to buy milk for you child or fill your car to get to work, the insurance becomes secondary. Don’t get me wrong, I have health insurance, but thus far it has really been more of an issue than help. As Ron Norton, the teacher referenced in this story said, I, as well as countless other folks, have “Mack Truck” insurance where it’s really only good if you get hit by a Mack Truck.
And the sad thing about this and other countless health care situations, is that we are at a point there is little the average citizen can do.
So, they wouldn’t let Ron Norton just talk about it. Well, he did outside of the state capital, but still, Nunez called in the CHP. So a conversation is now worthy of law enforcement?
I spent a good portion of my time yesterday reading up on Cobra, self-employed health insurance and the costs of these things. But you see, where an economist could break down how to budget in health insurance, for me, it was about what more do you sacrifice if you aren’t making very much money. If you wanted to start your business, getting insurance is expensive. I spent almost a fourth of my gross income last year on insurance (all of it, not just health.) And I’m on a group policy.
So, I’ll end this rambling about health insurance with one thought. I am watching the candidates very carefully on this issue. Very carefully. My family (Big Daddy is paying an outrageous amount right now that is mind-boggling that breaks down to two and a half week’s salary that I make.) has been impacted about insurance. We’ve done ok, but what about all of those who aren’t. But what about those who are only making eight or nine bucks an hour and who are spending that money so frivolously.
Like on shelter and food, utilities and transportation to work. Yeah, crap like that they don’t need, but by God they need health insurance, which has become so selective on things that it has become a joke.
Remember, my insurance didn’t allow me a stress test in the fall. Blood pressure running at 200 over 127. Yeah, I didn’t need that. Not at all.
Where’s the dialogue about real people ’cause I’m one of ‘em. It’s not as simple as talking trends or judging folks who are poor. It’s about making insurance affordable and accessible without it making it a criminal offense. And, it’s about insurance being available to those who really need it.
And, yeah, I’m very cranky about all of this.
Categories: Tennessee - Tag: Asshattery, Candidates, Felix Nunez, Health Insurance, Ron Norton
Discussion (No Comments)
A couple of things:
My mom and dad are in the exact same situation as Big Daddy. They have to hang on one more year till Dad qualifies for Medicare, then, although it’s still outrageous, it’ll just be my mom that’s self insured. And that’s just for a catastrophic plan. We kids are sandwiched – we try to help as we can, but we’re raising our own children at the same time.
I don’t know the answer – we can’t just wave our hands and fix it. And a lot of people, who are not big, scary corporations, but real people, are going to get hurt. But, others are hurting (badly) now, so hurt cannot be avoided. Like I said, I just don’t know what we should do.
Secondly: it’s funny how one man’s people’s advocate is another man’s unruly mob. If you’ll recall, they locked us horn-honkers out of the state legislature, and called the cops on us. It was not right then, and it’s not right now.
[...] Newscoma discusses the costs of health insurance: I spent a good portion of my time yesterday reading up on Cobra, self-employed health insurance and the costs of these things. But you see, where an economist could break down how to budget in health insurance, for me, it was about what more do you sacrifice if you aren’t making very much money. If you wanted to start your business, getting insurance is expensive. I spent almost a fourth of my gross income last year on insurance (all of it, not just health.) And I’m on a group policy. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
We just finished a very expensive 5 mo. interlude on COBRA, and they call it that because if you need it very long it’s going to financially squeeze the life out of you. $1400 a mo. for a family of 4 and we could not opt to only cover the required members. Everybody or nobody. We were actually willing to go without for ourselves, in spite of the creditable coverage issue. Now we have new insurance, costing us $300/mo, group plan with Hubby’s new job, working for an INSURANCE COMPANY!!! WTF? So, yeah, this is a big hot button issue for me too. Unfortunately I know without a doubt that the average sheep (I mean Voters) will end up defeating universal coverage yet again. Because scare tactics work… and the average voter is no smarter than Mabel (who, by the way, does have insurance, for much less than ours costs).
I think I love you.
Not in a lusty way, you understand, but in a I-like-the-way-you-think kind of way. I’m too old for lusty. But I’m just fine on the points you make on healthcare and medical insurance in this country and the 2008 presidential race.
This is one of the most important political years of the past five decades, not because of foreign policy or military issues or domestic economy platforms or even if we’ll call the president sir or ma’am.
I think it is well time that we “candle” our candidates, much like egg farmers (not quite the name I was looking for but it’s early for me yet) do before they send their product market. We want to see what’s inside these folks, what their plan is and if that plan is workable. For everyone. Everywhere. And under all conditions.
Watching the cadidates closely on their stance on the current state of healthcare and insurance in the United States is a very good game plan. The problem is, each one is so afraid of putting their campaign on the line for even an on-point response to healthcare questions they have a tendency to tap dance around the question. And if you really notice, they’re all dancing as fast as they can.
No one in this country is guaranteed anything beyond the promise of life, liberty and the purwsuit of happiness. But when a few (insurers and the medical establishment as a whole) can dangle decent, affordable healthcare like a carrot in front of the general population and challenge the people’s ability to achieve that carrot, there’s a problem for the life part, the liberty part and a whole lot of the happiness part.
I”m with you. Let’s watch. Let’s get some questions answered.
And let’s give ‘em hell.
I hate to be a one issue gal, but I’m thinking a lot about the health care issue when I think about the candidates–not that it matters because I’m sure a good one will never pass muster. Insurance is a sore complaint for me: Because of a few polyps–noncancerous, by the way, I’ve settled for an insurance company who took me on, colon and all–but with a 5,000 deductible though it pays 100% after that, maybe okay. Farm Bureau Blue Cross would not cover my colon. My husband, who has the Farm Bureau insurance, goes to the doctor a ton more than I do. It makes me laugh, deviously, I admit. They’d have done sooooo much better financially with me.