Health Insurance in the United States Sucks

[ramapo]

If you've been watching TV the past couple of days, you should be very afraid of the proposals being discussed to reform health insurance. After all, what could be worse than a system that at the every least provides for guaranteed-issue insurance through a federal program?

My blood pressure soars each time I see one of our "representatives" spewing bullshit about how Americans are going to sacrifice cost, choice, and availability under a "government" plan.

Here's my reality and it has my blood pressure through the roof.

My 22-year-old son is graduating college. Wonderful, except now he cannot be covered under my health plan.

He's been going to school in Chicago and wants to stay there. He is an aspiring musician so, for right now anyway, he's not looking into corporate employment. Not that there's much out there now for a liberal art graduate anyway.

So he needs individual insurance. Unfortunately (in the eyes of the insurance companies), he is the survivor of a benign brain tumor. Today, seven years later, he is as healthy as anybody. The chances of recurrence are about nil and he hasn't even been sick in two years.

Yet this bit of medical history is enough to deny him insurance without even much of a thought. Now he can get guaranteed-issue insurance in NJ but he doesn't want to live here.

So here we are in this wonderful country of ours. Need insurance? Sorry can't have it. Hope you don't get sick or injured. Good luck.

I hate every one of those f***ing, sick bastard politicians and lobbyists who have done everything in their power these past 16 years to make sure that the insurance companies get to retain the power to decide who is fortunate enough to get insurance, which providers you can visit, and what treatments get covered. I won't even talk about rates, co-pays, and deductibles.

I like to think this gets fixed this year but it looks like we'll be lucky to get some watered down BS solution. I hope I'm wrong.

I've written my letters and made my calls. A lot of good that'll do my son if he winds up sick.

[DJ13]

1. K&R

Im surprised theres no comments to your great post.

[ejpoeta]

2. thank also the people who have theirs and could give a crap about everyone else.

they are the ones complaining about having to pay for 'those people' to have insurance. i should know, i have relatives. what really gets me is how they don't seem to see the implications. the idea of developing tests to see if people are susceptible to certain illnesses sounds like a great idea for catching them early and such, but it also, to a cynic, seems an opportunity for insurance companies to deny coverage of people. like if they could find out that I have a higher likelihood of getting cancer because of my family history and the like. and a lot of people think they have great insurance (especially since they pay so much for it) until something happens and all of a sudden they aren't covered.

i am sorry for what your son is having to go through right now. If only we could get people to friggin actually pay attention and stop thinking of single payer or public insurance as a way to make the middle class pay for all those lazy people on welfare. first of all, we are already paying for the uninsured and those on welfare and ourselves.... just a lot more because we pay higher costs and the insurance companies get to exclude whoever they want. that way people like your son slip through the cracks. we need something that makes our health more than a privilege in this country.

[Horse with no Name]

3. this IS exactly the problem

I blame Congress as well. THEY have insurance (funded by us) so they really have NO idea of the devastation that families without it can face. Oh we could start a movement and take away their insurance, but it would just be given to them by the insurance company lobbyists.
There is a LOT wrong with this country. As far as I am concerned, lack of GOOD healthcare and insurance should be at the top of the list, but won't because too many greedy selfish pigs (including Congress) already have theirs and really LIKE the fact that it gives them special status in the healthcare market. They do not WANT to share their status with the unwashed masses.
That is what it is really about.

[ejpoeta]

6. that's why the whole waiting lines and bs about having to wait....

sure, i guess if we just leave out almost 50 million people the lines would be shorter.... right? wtf is wrong with people. until THEY are the uninsured or find out that there is some limit on the amount which they won't find out until they need a transplant or something. i just keep thinking about that movie "John Q" with denzel washington.... scares the crap out of me!! but we wouldn't want washington bureaucrats making decisions for us... but letting greedy money grubbing insurance companies do it.... that is perfectly a-ok.

[Horse with no Name]

7. Let's see...what is worse

having to wait in one of the other "evil socialized countries" a few weeks for elective procedures and then having it done for free, OR having to wait HERE a few weeks for "the magnanimous gestures" from the insurance company giving us permission to have what they consider elective procedures and then still owing 20% of a bloated price for the procedure--IF they don't decide to rescind their permission and then leave you owing the entire bloated price even after permission was granted. I'm currently fighting this battle and I even have it in WRITING that the surgery was approved.
Not even going to address the waiting time for emergent procedures--I've yet to receive proof of the thousands dead from heart attacks or ruptured organs in socialist countries...yet have seen videos of dying women being arrested in ER waiting rooms here AFTER she and OTHER PATIENTS have called 911. Those that think we have the best healthcare system in the world have NOT seen what I have seen.
Just last week I was instructed by a doctor to turf an uninsured man out of the ER with an unsafe blood pressure and chest pain without nary a test.
The monied and the greedy frame this debate--from the start to the finish and most of it calls upon taking away our convenience and too many of our populace don't bother researching facts--they just buy what the teevee man sells them.
I guess waiting in Canada and waiting in the US are different somehow.
Oh and then there is the straw man of "not gonna let the government decide what I can have done"...but yet have no problem in letting the greedy grubbing insurance companies decided what you NEED and hospital corporations with no problem in DENYING what you need.

[truedelphi]

9. Horse - very good post.

Wish you could get credited a buck a word or something.

Every single issue is now in the hands of the One Money Party and their notions of right and wrong.
The insurance issue is just another instance where the Talking Heads spew their filth and some of it sticks. I don't think much of it does though, but in the long run it doesn't matter.

money talks, and the rest of us simply watch the good life slipping away from us.

[Horse with no Name]

10. Thank you. It is my "hot topic"...however...I would like to add one thought to yours

too many of us SUFFER while the good life slips away.:hug:

[truedelphi]

11. As a victim of a medical bankruptcy, I can well attest to the fact that

there have been sleepless nights, days when it felt like I was sweating blood, and all that.
(Things have been much better lately.)

I am sure that suffering is just something the noblesse oblige think of as part of our way of life.
We were too stupid to be born with a billion dollar spoon up our butts so we must suffer the consequences!

So, Dear pal, I guess we can agree to hang in there -- as what other choice have we got?

:pals:

[Horse with no Name]

12. Things can only change

when more walk in your shoes. With the way the economy is going....that COULD be in our lifetime.
Hanging in there is the best we can do--until then.:pals:

[ramapo]

14. This issue has been on my front burner for 25 years

Things have gotten a little bit better here in NJ but premiums are through the roof. Every year we get a 15-20% increase with reduced benefits and higher co-pays. I talk to people about this every chance I get and am amazed at the ignorance.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Count me among the disgruntled

As of next month, the premium for my no-coverage, high-deductible health insurance plan is going up thirty dollars a month. This is despite the fact that I have never used up my deductible and have been disgustingly healthy except for the usual colds and seasonal flu and one sprained ankle.

[Coyote_Bandit]

5. The health care system sucks

While the insurance companies are most definitely not without blame neither are they the sole cause of our fucked up health care system. Every single participant in that health care system - including patients - are financially motivated. Hospitals and clinics have a profit motive. So do medical suppliers and drug companies. And insurance companies. Insurance agents and employees and health care workers are there to earn a livlihood. Medical doctors are often compensated on a national scale that bears little resemblence to the financial realities of the locale where they practice. Patients must be wary of out of pocket expenses and must also anticipate their future likelihood of retaining insurance coverage - and at what cost. There is no group of participants in the health care system who are purely benevolent. It is a system that is far more concerned about the financial bottom line than it is with saving lives and improving quality of life. Those things are for sale.

And then there are the hangers on that drag the system down. The plaintiffs, the tort lawyers and the juries. While I have no problem with those who have been injured being compensated for their injuries I think we need to realize that some injuries simply cannot be valued in monetary terms. Yet that is exactly what the lawyers and juries try to do. With wildly varied and inconsistent results. There is really no reason why some legislative guidance should not be provided as to how to value non-monetary damages. Well, except for the fact that would cut into the haul of the tort lawyers who typically take 50% of a trial verdict. That too is egregious. We pretend that we do not want to place values on tort injuries - but yet we are perfectly willing to value work related injuries. Just another double standard.

I believe we need a single payer system that guarantees a minimum level of health care for everyone. I've got no problem with making supplemental private insurance policies available to fund services that are not otherwise covered.

I affirmatively resent every politician who has spoken out in favor of single payer only to change their pea brained little minds when it no longer served their desire for position and the personal power and prosperity it offered. I've got no use for the cruel selfish bastards. They do not serve my interests. But they are happy to use my tax dollars to fund their own health care.

/rant



All my best to your son.

:hug:

[Mythsaje]

8. I despise the insurance companies... no question.

Criminal scum.

[ramapo]

13. Why aren't all the individuals pooled?

I constantly read that group policies work because it allows the insurance maggots spread their risks. Fine, I get it. Well what are all the individuals who aren't eligible for a group policy but one large group? Is this just too much common sense?

[nichomachus]

15. The truth is

that they would do the same for group policies, if they could get away from it.

It's called "cherry picking." You only insure the people who can prove they're probably not going to need insurance.

[Wednesdays]

16. K&R

:kick:

[AllieB]

17. Everyone needs to read this story.

K&R