I’ll admit, the last time I had heath insurance was over seven years ago when I was working for a major company. The premium, which was automatically deducted from my paycheck, was $350 a month and I never had even one claim. I never really paid much attention to health insurance, or the lack thereof since, until the issue became the “flavor of the day” topic on every television news program and internet cite 24/7, ad nauseam.
I watched Glenn Beck on Fox news, then switched to Keith Olberman on MSNBC,, I got whiplash. Four hours of CNN later, I began to get a terrible headache, and thought I was having a stroke. I felt a sudden chill in the air, and thought I was coming down with swine flu.
Watching all the medical programs didn’t help, either. I also started to wonder why none of those injured, sick or dying patients on shows like E.R. and Hawthorne were ever asked if they had insurance and just who was paying for all those test administered by those diagnosticians on House? They don’t need health insurance to receive treatment, so do we really need reform?
I had two very good girlfriends who were both diagnosed with cancer. One was a very successful C.P.A, whose health insurance policy fully covered every test, every treatment, every doctor’s visit and every prescription. The other was a legal secretary whose employer refused to pay for any health insurance. MediCal, California’s medical plan, paid for every test, every treatment, every doctor’s visit and every prescription.
They both died within two years of being diagnosed.
Having heath insurance hadn’t made any difference in the care or treatment of either of my two friends and the end result was the same, so why is there such a huge debate on both sides of an issue if it has very little actual difference in anyone’s life? Life insurance does not guarantee life any more than health insurance guarantees health. We’re being sold a bill of goods which is no more effective in preventing illness and death than the bogus ingredients in snake oil will cure grandma’s gout.
Insurance is a funny thing to try and sell. It’s the one product that you buy hoping you’ll never use. I was sitting in traffic the other day listening to a life insurance ad on the radio. The salesman, in an ominous tone, says “You’re driving on the freeway, when suddenly you’re hit by a truck and you’re dead. What will happen to your family?” The thought that went through my head was; “Don’t care, I’m dead.”
The salesman went on to cite an entire list of “who will” and “what will” questions, which I responded the same way. “Don’t care. Dead.” However, the fear of disasters yet to come tactic is exactly what insurance salesmen use to terrify us into buying their product, whether we need it or not promising peace of mind and security with their slogans; “You’re In Good Hands”, “Like a Good Neighbor”, and “So Simple A Caveman Can Do It.” Ok, forget the last one.
Not everyone needs heath insurance, but to hear our politicians and talk show hosts talk, and talk and TALK about the dire consequences to our country if we don’t providing this product that some may never use, we not believe every man, woman and child MUST have insurance or we’re all going to die. While everyone knows that they’re going to die sooner or later, with or without health insurance, we have somehow come to believe it will be a great deal sooner unless we pass some kind of health care i.e. insurance, reform. It makes a great deal of sense that in order to sell a product that you hope you’ll never need, is to create that need and make it so necessary that everyone wants it and will do whatever they can to get it.
Well, it worked for Harold Hill in the Music Man, didn’t it?
It is truly amazing how healthy Americans were before all this talk of health insurance reform hit the fan. People would attend a town forum without risking getting a stroke from carrying heavy picket signs in ninety degree weather and screaming at the top of their lungs at town hall forums.
The best way to cure the ills of our health care system and regain a happy and healthy life is to pull the plug...
...on the television set.
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Christine McKellar
Bob Eckstein
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Comments
(As an aside, has anyone besides me noticed the proliferation of that odious term, "benefits-eligible employee?"It has replaced "full-time employee" or "permanent employee" in the lexicon of the human resources munchkins. So, you may have been working at the same place for fifteen years, you may be working more than a full-time job, but you're not eligible for benefits, because you;re not "benefits-eligible." Alrighty, then. I hope there's a special place in Hell for the gnome who invented that term.)
Anyway, so most people with employer-based health insurance like their insurance well enough. But if you are one of those unlucky ones who suffers from a major illness, you will very likely descend into that Hell of claims denied and resubmitted and denied again, of bankruptcy and permanent unemployability.
"I had two very good girlfriends who were both diagnosed with cancer. One was a very successful C.P.A, whose health insurance policy fully covered every test, every treatment, every doctor’s visit and every prescription. The other was a legal secretary whose employer refused to pay for any health insurance. MediCal, California’s medical plan, paid for every test, every treatment, every doctor’s visit and every prescription. They both died within two years of being diagnosed.
Having heath insurance hadn’t made any difference in the care or treatment of either of my two friends and the end result was the same, so why is there such a huge debate on both sides of an issue if it has very little actual difference in anyone’s life? Life insurance does not guarantee life any more than health insurance guarantees health. We’re being sold a bill of goods which is no more effective in preventing illness and death than the bogus ingredients in snake oil will cure grandma’s gout."
Let me flat out say that you are uninformed. Totally uninformed.
I don't know a state that would do what you say, which is pay for everything a private insurer would do, for the poor (presumably) and uninsured.. In most states you are either insured or not. If you are not, AND you are poor you MIGHT get Medicaid (which sounds like Medical, which is insurance for the poor) IF you are a single mother (gotta have those dependents) on TANF (welfare) or some similar program WITHOUT a husband, usually. OR in some states if you are a minor child of a poor uninsured mother you may get insured. Oh, if you're over the age of approximately 65 and have paid into the system you can get Medicare (or if you need a kidney transplant).
Otherwise: No Medicaid (or Medical), which means no insurance. No treatment unless you go an emergency room for an emergency treatment. So, single poor women: No. Poor men: No. Poor married couples: No. People like my child and his partner that are uninsurable: No. What they could get would be treatment under emergency conditions in an emergency room. For cancer, diabetes, hepatitis, and many other chronic diseases: No. Nothing.
Please educate yourself. And please stop being perturbed about people talking about the biggest public health and/legislative issue that will probably ever be talked about in your lifetime. Do something. Frankly for someone like you I don't care if you become pro or con a public health care option or health care reform. Just BE something.
And while you're educating yourself please read this and this person's previous 3 posts. Learn something:
http://open.salon.com/blog/thebarkinglot4/2009/08/21/the_final_solution_insurance_companies_are_the_new_nazis
denese
Pray you don't get some illness or accident that is not life threatening but costs lots of money. My spouse, who is healthy but self-employed had 2 bouts with kidney stones and a suspected neurological emergency (which turned out to be nothing) while we had only a high-deductible health plan. We are paying the bills for these episodes and will be for many years to come. We could have bought 2 new cars and put a healthy down on a new home for what we are paying. And that doesn't begin to address our child, who was born so preemie that he couldn't be covered by private insurance at all until he turned 5. Just FYI, a basic pediatric check-up costs almost $1,000 if you're cash-pay - and that's with the shots subsidized...
Of course, a blogger-ish response could be that 37 year-olds have no business being first-time moms anyway b/c everyone knows it's high risk, and if my husband had always been a vegetarian, maybe he wouldn't get those kidney stones...
Excellent points. That's why I support a single-payer evidence based system like they have in the UK. It's true that every once in a while I see some sob story about someone in the UK being denied some intervention that may or may not tack on a few weeks at the end of life, but at least in the UK they won't charge you $8000.00 for giving birth to a healthy baby. And that's infinitely more important.
ROFL