Yes, we DO need to do something about health care costs

A couple of someone’s have approached and/or suggested to me lately that b/c their own health care costs are so very low, that nothing needs to be done in America to change things.
I am truly grateful for my own health insurance (which comes through my DH’s job) and am also truly grateful that should the need arise, I have training that would enable me to find a full-time job with instant benefits. I am also very grateful that most of my close relatives and in-laws have access to health care as well…some are even fortunate enough to have pensions with benefits, something I don’t believe will exist any longer when my own generation reaches retirement age.
But none of this changes the fact that 47 million Americans at any given point in time are completely without coverage at all, and many more (I don’t have a week to do more solid research on numbers…this is NOT a paid blog) are underinsured. Underinsured means they have only catastrophic insurance (ie. if they get cancer it’d all be paid, but no office visits, laceration repairs, physicals, mammograms, or Pap smears are paid) OR that their deductible or co-pays are sky-high.
This also doesn’t change the fact that my own parents, who have health insurance through my father’s job, and who have both had cancer, pay large sums of money out of pocket each month DESPITE their pretty decent insurance! Mom has given permission to use them as an example:
$364/month is deducted from Dad’s paycheck to go toward their health insurance premiums (his employer pays the rest, whatever that may be)
$200/month is their COPAY for their medications (no, not all drugs cost $4/month now, though that’s wonderful that many do and it helps tremendously!)
$300/year (so $25/month) for medical appointment copays, not counting any acute illnesses.
And the big whopper: Dad’s special food he takes in through his gastrostomy tube in his stomach. Their insurance company has an elaborate percentage that varies for this. Full price for the food and paraphernalia is a whopping $900/month. Mom and Dad pay 80% of that $900 at the beginning of the year. Once a certain amount is met, the insurance company kicks in more and M/D pay only 20%, and then in the last couple months of the year they owe only 10%.
Dad just turned 64; Mom is 4 months younger than him. He would love to retire now…he could actually go on disability due to his cancer history (tongue removed in 1995) until eligible for Medicare. BUT Mom depends on his health insurance. As an in-home day care provider, she does not have other options for health care, and there are no free medical clinics in Atlantic, Iowa (population 7500). So Dad will wait until he is 65 years, 4 months, before retiring to keep her covered. Thank God he isn’t 5 years older, or more!
It’s no wonder the political candidates can be “out of touch with Joe the Plumber” on things like this…my parents’ own friends and family seem sadly out of touch. A relative who is retiring early expressed shock when he commented that Dad should retire, and Dad calmly pointed out that would leave Mom without health care insurance. The relative enjoys insurance through his wife (and through his own current job as well).
Addendum to my parents’ story: Dad is a farm implement mechanic for a small-ish company in Atlantic, and due to astronomically rising costs of providing health care insurance to their employees, his bosses have switched insurance companies multiple times in the last several years. The last switch JUST occurred, and unless Dad’s doctor can get it appealed, the new insurance company will not pay a cent toward Dad’s $900/month food and supply costs.
There has been much hype in the Des Moines Register about the World Food Prize, rightly given to those who helped implement plans to feed hungry children throughout the world at their schools. I would make the strong case that workers in America could be more effective if their health care needs were “fed” as a right, not a privilege for the wealthy and well-educated with good jobs, in this country.
I hope that regardless of who wins the election in November that many positive changes will come about in our health care system. I am heartened that both candidates’ health care plans as touted by their websites touch on the sad fact of “pre-existing conditions” and how they plan to cover those persons. Based on the books I have read and previously touted on this blog, I think McCain’s plan of relying on free markets to improve the insurance industry and health care is doomed to fail royally. Obama’s plan is certainly not perfect either but seems to me to be more of a step in the right direction.
So for all who have braved this post thus far, think long and hard about your own, and your family and friends’ own health care plights. Count yourselves as very lucky if you are well-covered (and remember unless you are on Medicare, you are only a job away from no insurance at all), and remember those who are not so fortunate when you make your own decisions at the voting booth in November.
Will now step off soap box.
Credits for image above: Supplies from Theresa Kavouras' "House Calls" collection at Scrapgirls.com