"No one should go bankrupt when they get sick"

[Uben]

As true as true gets. But, I submit, no one should be driven to bankruptcy paying outrageous healthcare premiums...even if you're not sick!

My insurance premiums (a private policy) are $1550/mo. My wife had breast cancer in 2003 but has been cancer free for 6 yrs and we haven't even been to a doctor in over three years! Our premiums continue to skyrocket every year. We can't get insurance anywhere else due to the pre-exisiting condition of her having had breast cancer.


We can now be driven to bankruptcy without ever being sick again, just by having to pay these outrageously high premiums. We are 10 yrs away from Medicare, and are likely to pay over $200,000 in premiums in those ten years for insurance. What happens when we go bankrupt and get sick? The taxpayer will pay for our care, if we get any. Some say we should just die if we can't afford insurance,
although I have never gone a day without insurance in my adult life. Now, they want to bankrupt me. Not really, what they really want is for me to just drop the coverage so they won't have to cover someone who has had cancer, and may get it again.

This is legal in America because our congressmen allow it. They take the money from the lobbyists and look the other way. The problem in America is not insurance companies, banks, oil companies, or any other industry. The problem is our government allowing them to rape us! Our problem is letting lobbyists purchase legislation. Our problem is the people we vote for. So, basically, our problem is US! We have to find honest congressmen who are willing to vote for our interests instead of the lobbyists. We need to make them sign a contract stating they will do so, and if they don't, they will be required to repay all funds given for their election to office. then promptly recalled and exiled.

This is the reform this country needs. We need government reform. The status quo does not work.

Anybody agree?

[rfranklin]

1. You are absolutely correct!

That's why the question of "free speech" (political contributions) for corporate entities should be resolved. Corporations are not "persons" and never should have been designated as such. Our founding fathers had the right idea in making a corporate charter a revocable and time limited entity.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. It's sad you feel you have to make the point. n/t

[DrDan]

3. with you 100%

the problem is on both sides of the aisle . . . and not limited to congress

[truedelphi]

12. There is one person who (I think) is running for office, and

He seems to be all about Single Payer Universal Health Care.

http://tinyurl.com/n2fy2k

H edoes mention that before we can get there, we need majority of Dems in The House and the Senate.

[DrDan]

13. saying you support it and actually twisting some arms to get there are two very different things

we both know single-payer is off the table. A healthy PO is probably off the table. Some weak substitute is left - if that.

oh yeah - and mandates.

All I see is a gluttony of profit for private insurers in the near-future . . . . and for many years to come.

[truedelphi]

15. Yep that is the sad truth of all this.

The second that Obama said "Hank (Paulson) is working hard" in late November, I began thinking of the old "Who" song.


Then after Obama was sworn in, and he started talking about being "Concillatory" I knew the fix was in.

We needed an FDR in terms of compassion and understanding and action, and an LBJ in terms of making political hay.
Instead we got a man who insisted on fueling the feeding frenzy of the RW lunatics.

But I guess it worked out okay for him - the bigger the frenzy, the more the 20% Dem party loyalists claim we have to back off criticizing the PResdient because he has had so much foul play from the RW loonies. So apparently it is a win-win.

[TwilightGardener]

4. This is what I don't understand about Republicans--

They pay through the nose under the same system. They have just as much chance of going under because of premiums and copays and caps--or of undergoing a job loss and not being covered at all, or of being denied coverage. And yet they're so devoted to the current system. I can't for the life of me understand why they're so happy with the way things are.

[onlyadream]

5. Do I know you?

Your story is exactly the same as a friend of mine...I'm wondering if you're her husband! :)

[Uben]

7. There are thousands of us......

...in the same boat, and you could join the club at any time. Cancer does not discriminate, although our insurance companies do!

[onlyadream]

9. So true!

Believe me, I'm well aware of that and have been making that argument almost everyday with my Fox watching family and friends. Just one illness can wreck everything that we've worked for.

[Hepburn]

6. KNR...

...healthcare should NOT be a for profit industry.

WTF is so hard to understand about that concept?? :shrug:

[MountainLaurel]

8. Yep

In the last 4 years of their lives, my ILs used their entire life's savings and then some to pay insurance premiums because they both were cancer survivors, who were too young for Medicare.

[endless october]

10. agree. n/t

[populistdriven]

11. A Nebraska Economist slings facts on the Heath Care Crisis

The US projected life expectancy is in 30th place.

A newborn Japanese person can expect to live five years longer.

American infants die at a rate twice that of Swedish children.

The US has the highest failure rate at eliminating avoidable deaths.

The US spends 200% more per person on health as other developed countries

The 50,000,000 uninsured Americans pay higher rates for health care than insurance companies pay for the same treatments.

The best solution is to provide universal coverage by extending the successful Medicare program to everyone. Americans would be richer by the remaining 40 percent of total health expenditures now eaten up by insurance company profits, misleading advertising, overpriced prescription drugs and the excessive need for emergency care caused by the lack of regular preventive care.

Dr. Hendrik Van den Berg is a Professor of Economics and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
http://www.dailynebraskan.com/opinion/americans-need-universal-health-care-1.1849623

Also;

American Journal of Medicine & Harvard Medical School - 60 percent of personal bankruptcies in the United States involved medical bills - Health insurance appears to be useless when it is most needed. Twenty-five percent of insurance companies cancel coverage immediately when an individual covered suffers a disabling illness. Within a year, another twenty-five percent of insurers cancel coverage.

Even with medical coverage, here are the average annual bills, out of pocket and after insurance payouts:

Multiple sclerosis: $34,167
Diabetes: $26,971
Injuries: $25,096
Stroke: $23,380
Heart disease: $21,955

http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/2009/06/04/majority-of-bankruptcies-due-to-medical-bills/

[wroberts189]

14. Aye !! knr