Update, 9/27/09: If you support real health care reform, as I do, please take time to sign this petition and ask that the Senate pass the bill that passed Ted Kennedy’s senate committee.
I know this is supposed to be a blog about paper mache – but paper mache has been used traditionally to make political statements, so it’s really only a minor stretch to use a paper mache blog to express a political viewpoint, right?
edit 8/29/09 – I just found this video of Bill Moyers over at the Hullabaloo blog. Moyers says things so much better than I ever can, so I’m fitting the video into this post.
Lately as I work on my elephant (she’s almost done!) and all my other friendly critters, my work hasn’t felt particularly relevant to the issues that interest me the most. I do love animals, and I do love sculpting them, but I’m not just an artist playing around with paper mache. I’m also a citizen with an inside view of how the health care industry works, and for that reason I can see how much misinformation is being spread by that industry to prevent any meaningful reform.
Frankly, watching the current debate unfold is enough to make me sick.
Acme Insurance, Inc.
I’m not a political cartoonist, so I’ll limit myself to this one little sketch of a health insurance executive dressed up in Daddy Warbucks’ suit and Uncle Scrooge’s top hat, sitting in a pile of our money.
For the rest of this story, you’ll have to create your own images. I’m sure you’ll do a much better job than I ever could.
Picture this:
Picture a very long line of people, some sick, but most of them well, who are waiting patiently for the opportunity to hand their money over to Acme Insurance, Inc. They do this willingly because they believe it will protect them financially if they ever get sick.
A peon working for Acme stands at the front of this long line. He lets some of the people in, and sends some of them away, in accordance with a set of secret rules that say “this persons will be profitable, but this person will not.” Do the people in that line have any control over who is accepted? No.
Now picture another line of people. These are the ones who were accepted by Acme Insurance, Inc. They’ve paid their premiums for months or years, and now they have medical bills they need to pay. Another peon checks the rules. Some of the claims get paid, and some of them don’t. Do you, as a paying customer, have any control at all over which claims are paid and which are not? No.
Now picture all these people sitting at home, opening their mail. They’ve just been told that their premiums are going up and the benefits are going down. Do these people have any say at all about how much the company charges or what benefits they receive? Nope.
But if you don’t quite trust your insurance company to make all these decisions about your life and health and would like to have some say in how your health care dollars are spent, they scream “you’re a socialist” or “you’re a nazi”—or whatever term they think may scare your neighbors the most.
Nice system, isn’t it? That guy in my little sketch thinks so, and he’ll do almost anything to keep us from changing anything—because he and a handful of his friends are making a bundle off the system, just as it is.
The real debate is not about health care – it’s about who controls the money we deposit towards future health care needs. It’s about who controls the money, us, the people, or a few owners and managers of the health care conglomerates who are required by their corporate charters to maximize profits for the benefits of their stockholders.
Us, or them.
They’ve been doing it so long that they believe they have a right to keep making all the rules for their own benefit. That’s why they believe the public should keep out of health care. It’s why the companies spend so much money (our money) on false claims about the dangers of government (that’s us) health care, and why they hire lobbyist who shower politicians with (our) money if they promise to keep the companies in power.
When I worked for a huge health insurance company myself, our company president rather ironically included in all his speeches a story about how the health insurance industry began. Health insurance, he said, was invented as a way for a community to spread the financial risk of illness, so the citizens in a community could make sure funds would be available so they could help each other in time of need.
Nice picture, isn’t it?
The problem is that our company president was not describing the way health insurance really works. He was describing an imaginary health care system in which the members of the community actually have some control over the money they put into the fund.
Did our company president really believe the nice little story he told so often? Not at all. That’s the last thing the company would want. Our company and every other health insurance company in America spends millions of dollars (of our money) to stop the spread of this type of “socialist” health care. They may use the “community” idea in their ads, but they’ll do anything to prevent true community control of the health care system.
What about keeping bureaucrats out of health care?
When they try to scare you by saying a bureaucrat will decide how much money a public option will cost and what services it will pay for, remember that’s when they’re talking about you. You, as a citizen of this country, would be given the opportunity to help decide what rules a government-run program would follow. Is that really all that scary?
Right now…
Right now, the insurance company decides who can participate and who can’t, and the rules they go by are a secret. You have no right to know what their underwriting rules are. If you’re denied coverage you may never know why, and you may not be allowed to appeal their decision. In fact, if you call a local insurance company and ask them if you would be accepted based on your current or past medical condition, the customer service person you talk to could get fired if she gives you an honest answer.
Right now, the company decides what is covered by their policies, and what is not. When the people pass a law requiring that all policies in their state cover certain conditions, the companies do everything they can to circumvent the law if it affects their profits. This has happened over and over again, and there is little any individual can do about it. But when it comes to decisions that could affect your life and health, they say “trust me.”
Right now, the company decides if a claim will be paid or not. They do not have to tell you or anyone else what percentage of their claims are processed incorrectly due to common errors or because their lawyers make a “mistake” when they interpret the laws your state has passed to regulate them. If you think your policy should cover a claim that was denied, you must call same people who denied it in the first place, and be willing to put up a fight. In many cases, fighting the insurance company if they really don’t want to pay your claims would cost you more money in legal fees than you could possibly afford.
Right now, if your application for coverage is accepted, the company gets to decide if any claims fall under their “pre-existing condition” exclusion. They can decide to not pay a claim based on their determination, even if you have never been diagnosed with that condition before. They can even cancel your coverage completely, because they were unaware of your unprofitable condition when they first accepted you.
Right now, the company can raise your premiums by as much as 22% or more, while also reducing the benefits that are covered in your policy. You, or your employer or your union can protest the change only by canceling the policy and purchasing a new policy from another company. But since every other company in your market has also raised their premiums and reduced their benefits, the choices are somewhat limited. If you do switch, you may then be subject to brand-new exclusionary periods, during which you pay your premiums but can claim no benefits.
Right now, doctors and hospitals can charge different amounts to different people for the same services. It is extremely common for a provider to accept $100 from an insurance company or Medicare, while they charge $500 or more for the very same services if the bill is paid by an actual person.
When you need services from an emergency room doctor, you have suddenly entered into the realm of the “under-insured.”
That’s because providers who don’t sign a contract with your insurance company, (and emergency room doctors, anesthesiologists, and other some other specialists rarely do), will hold you responsible for everything left over after your insurance pays their percentage of a “usual and customary” amount determined by the insurance company. Believe it or not, you could end up with a bill for as much as $30,000 for one night in the emergency room, (this actually happened to a friend of mine), even if you have excellent coverage.
That’s why millions of insured people in this country are just one accident or sudden illness away from losing their homes and life savings. It only happens here, in America.
And all this assumes that you actually have insurance. Millions of people don’t, either because they can’t afford the premiums and don’t work for a company that offers a group policy, or because the companies won’t cover someone with their medical history.
When you hear someone telling a scary story about how awful it would be if “the government” takes over health care, stop and think for a moment. Remember—”we the people” are the government. If we pay a large chunk of our monthly income towards future health care costs, shouldn’t we have some say about how that money is spent?
So—here’s the bottom line in the current health care debate: Who do you want in charge of that huge pile of money? A corporate executive who’s paid millions of dollars a year to maximize his company’s profits—or you and your fellow citizens.
The only way we, the people, will ever have any control of that pile of cash is through a public option. The co-op idea is a sham, written by the insurance industry, and it must be rejected. I urge you to support the members of congress who have pledged to support the public option.
If you agree (or disagree) you can have your say in the comments section below. But please be nice. This is a family-friendly site. And if you’ve figured out an artistic way to present these arguments, I’d love to see what you’ve come up with.
- My favorite online bookstore.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Great stuff Jonni,
Like you, I am severely disappointed by things as they stand right now. The big winners, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies. With no public option, and no HMO type option, insurance companies will use the eventual bill’s mandates (about pre-existing conditions and increased lifetime limits) as excuses to raise their rates. And what incentive will there be to lower rates if the uninsured are all herded into the arms of existing companies? The big pharmaceutical companies successfully killed the importation of drugs from other countries, freeing them to continue scalping the American public. I’ll take this one step further. Many people think that it was Democratic infighting that killed these popular and necessary features of health care reform. It wasn’t. It was the fact that not a single Republican in the Senate ceded the need for any kind of meaningful reform. In fact, it was pretty clear from the beginning that the goal of the Republican Party was to kill health care reform in order to rob the President of an important political victory. In the end, party loyalty trumped the welfare of the American people.
I appreciate your courageous stand and clear insight on this issue. It gives us all something to think about as we stick our hands into our paste. Thank you!
You’re certainly welcome. I had two very selfish reasons to vote for Obama — I wanted health insurance I could afford sometime before I’m eligible for Medicare. Now I’m just glad I’ll be eligible for the oldster’s government plan before the new health care “reform” takes effect, since I’m sure you’re right about the increase in rates. I also wanted our city’s Amtrak train to come back, which may happen eventually – but I’ll probably move back to the city before that happens. Oh well… I’m sure we’re still better off than we would be if we’d voted for the opposition.
Very well said. I would add that even if you want to change insurance companies, you often can’t because of pre-existing conditions. I had COBRA after my husband died. When that ran out, I priced insurance. Only one company would consider taking me on and that excluded all pre-existing conditions (ie, no prescription coverage) — for the same price I had paid for the COBRA coverage. I decided to go without insurance and switched most of my rx’s to generic. My cost are much lower now, though IF SOMETHING BAD happens …
Love your site. Found it tonight and have been reading through all of your posts.
Thanks,
Karla
Hi Karla. Here in Oregon the insurance companies have to provide at least one low-cost plan for people who are losing coverage. Here it’s called the “Portability Plan.” It may be a national mandate, but I’m not sure. I pay $350 a month for mine, but the deductible is high and the benefits aren’t very good – however, it might keep me out of bankruptcy if I ever get sick. Since I had breast cancer 12 years ago, no insurance would cover me under a regular individual plan.
I am sure that if I were younger, I’d take my chances. I suppose what matters is what you have to lose if you get sick. Hospitals will work with you if you have no assets to seize. I sure hope congress gets something meaningful passed this year – but I’m still a bit discouraged.
I’ve often thought it would be interesting to live in Costa Rica for a few years. They have a cheap health program, I’ve heard. But I’ve also heard the IMF messed up their economy, resulting in higher poverty and crime rates. And, of course, nobody else in my family would go with me.
I often think how courageous the pioneers were, taking off in a covered wagon to parts unknown, leaving their extended families behind. I’m not that brave, I’m afraid. But that cheap health insurance sure does sound inviting (and the frogs and the parrots and all the other wildlife – I’d love to see it, even if I never lived there).
Jonni sent me over to add my specific thoughts on being a working artist, and the insurance question. In short, I don’t have insurance. I’ve only rarely had it, in short bits, either from my husband during the time that we could afford the premiums, or when I worked for a corporation nearly full-time. My husband and I talk often about moving out of the country to get health coverage as we get older. There’s a whole market of people leaving to spend their money elsewhere, but you don’t see the insurance people trying to woo us into staying!
When I began googling this topic, I had no idea I would come upon such an in depth conversation! I find it invigorating!
I am an artist that finds herself trapped in a secretary job 40 hours a week because it offers group health insurance. If insurance was affordable on an individual basis, then I could work part time and pursue my dream. Instead, with working an outside job full time along with other responsibilities, I’m lucky to be able to find a few hours a month to draw or paint.
When I was a child growing up, I heard over and over how you could strive to live the American Dream if you wanted. That you could be anyone you wanted to be and do anything you wanted to do. As an adult, I find myself adding, “As long as you are rich and can afford insurance, don’t want or care if you have insurance, or your dream is to work for a company that offers insurance.” Anything less and it’s “Sorry, you can’t responsibly have that as an American Dream……” Because, if you are sick or break something you could lose everything and it could effect the rest of your life.
That’s just sad. Especially when there are options and alternatives.
All true, Vicki. I’m not sure if the current crop of congressmen and women will fix this problem or not. I guess we just wait and see.
Here in Oregon the insurance companies must offer their former members something called a Portability plan. It is not the same as Cobra, which is so expensive almost nobody can afford it. The benefits aren’t great, but all the individual plans offered here in our state have crummy benefits. The portability plan has the advantage of being much less expensive than anything else they offer. You might check out your insurance company’s website and see if that would be an option for you. I remember back in the day when I worked a regular job, and I could never have the mental energy at night to create anything.
Good luck to you.
Hi Jonni. I’m Xan’s husband. Great piece of writing. I got pretty disgusted a couple of years ago when I was on a needs assessment for a village water supply project in Amazonian Peru. A collegue is a princeton and UC Berkeley trained anthropologist who lives with his wife and two small children in Brazil. One of his children has a medical conditon that required them to move close to sao Paulo for frequent medical care. He was telling me that they have govenerment health care in Brazil, but that his family also has private health insurance, I think for convenience. I asked him how much it cost, and as I recall he said it was about $250/month for the whole family, even with the child’s medical condition. I asked him, aghast, how the premiums could be so low, and he said, because of the public health care, private insurance was reasonable because they have to compete. It may be that single payer is just not possible in the US, but a stong public option should make the insurance companies step up and act responsibly or rightly go out of business. Again thanks for your thoughtful and well written piece.
Hi Humphrey. It’s nice to meet you. And thanks for giving us another glimpse of how things work in other countries.
Brazil isn’t the only place where supplemental insurance is affordable. Those policies are available here in the U.S as well. They’re the supplemental policies that are available to people on Medicare.
The government designed a handful of policies for this market, and said exactly which benefits the policies must include. The insurance companies can choose which of the supplemental plans they want to offer, if any, as long as they follow the rules: They cannot turn anyone down if they sign up within a certain time after they become eligible, they must offer the same benefits as every other company offering the same plan, and the only things they can compete with are their prices and their customer service. Because of this competition, the plans are affordable.
The thing that makes me so crazy is that we already have experience in this country with a system that works. It protects people financially if they get sick, and it reduces costs. Yet that system isn’t even on the table during this round of talks about fixing the health care system, simply because it offers lower profits for the insurance companies. They still make enough profit on the Medicare supplements to be willing to offer them, but not nearly as much as they do on their other policies. It’s all about the money.
Mario, it’s wonderful getting your outside perspective (and indictment) on the US.
The word “responsibility” is also a dirty word here, it seems. Responsibility for our own choices and actions, their inevitable consequences, and even for our fellow citizens and culture at large. Without this sense of responsibility we are doomed to continue this path to debauched and debased poverty, of body and mind (or spirit, if you will).
Jonni, I love the comparisons you make between the behavior of our country, and a dysfunctional family. Crazy-making is definitely the right word. I’m also disappointed in Obama’s lack of cojones, but admit to being somewhat cynical, after watching Clinton do much the same thing.
As is often the case, tristero, writing for the Hullabaloo blog said it best.
Hi Xan, it’s always interesting to get perspectives from people outside the borders. Recently I had a conversation with someone from Thailand who really thought that Holland was a place with tulips everywhere and people wearing wooden shoes.
One funny question I had from a friend when I was in the states was if the Queen over here would take political decisions. For those who wonder: no she don’t.
Another interesting discovery was that he didn’t know that there are also Dutch and German soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraque
dieing.
The Internet is a wonderful place to share thoughts and perspectives with real people.
Have a nice day ahead.
Let’s face another fact by the way: The US blew up the world economy.
The reason for this is quite simple by the way: responsibility. Why is that? I don’t know exactly if the information I have is right and I love to learn and like to be corrected if I’m wrong. I heard that if you cant pay your loan or mortgage anymore in the states, you can literally give the keys of your home to the bank and you can say: “Bye dudes, I don’t pay anymore. Good luck with selling the house.” You have no debts left as the bank now owns your home. If they can sell it to cover the amount of money they lend you isn’t your problem.
In Europe this is different. I could for example leave my home and say the dude sentence in Dutch. No problem, but when the bank isn’t able to sell the house for a price that cover the mortgage they have the right to get the difference from me. Even better/worse, they don’t have to do their best to find the best buyer. The home is sold in an auction and the bank just takes the highest bid of the day. For the person with the mortgage that means: no home and debts.
I think this is a bad model (inhuman, as the bank could at least let the home owner try to sell the home with free will witin 6 month or so), but if my information is true, the model in the US isn’t better as it teaches people to consume and get into debts without thinking a lot about the consequences. They just have to give the stuff back.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Mario, I can’t actually say if this is true or not. It’s my understanding that the mortgagee will still owe the money if the house doesn’t sell for enough money to pay the debt, unless the individual goes bankrupt. The bankruptcy rate has gone way up, so maybe you’re right.
I’m not an economist by any means, but I believe the world economy blew up because a few very huge banks and Wall Street Brokers bought thousands of mortgages that had been given to people who didn’t have a prayer of ever paying the money back. Then they bundled these mortgages in securities that nobody could understand, and sold them worldwide by promising an unreasonably high return and little risk. It was a ponzi scheme.
Yes, the individuals who bought houses they couldn’t afford shouldn’t have done that, but the people weren’t all that sophisticated about economic issues, and they believed the pundits who said house prices would keep going up. Then, like the bust of the tulip craze way back when, the bubble burst and millions of people were left with houses they paid way to much money for, and with variable-rate mortgages they could no longer pay. Individual buyers “should” have seen that the bubble would burst (I admit that I saw it coming, but that’s another story). Even Paul Krugman didn’t predict what was going to happen to the world financial markets, because those securities, etc., were all sold behind closed doors without any government oversight.
But yes – the problems you’re now having, financially, are a direct result of our country’s financial mess, which was caused by the loosening of financial safeguards that were put in place by Roosevelt during the Great Depression. We put the Wall Street brokers in charge of our nation’s money – in fact, in charge of your money, too, and let them play with it without oversight. They gambled, and we lost.
Well, maybe Mario has just explained to us why America is the only place in the modern world where a family can end up destitute simply because one of them gets sick. Here in America, politicians are assumed to be corrupt. Millions of dollars flow from corporations to elected officials, and – surprise, surprise – those elected officials then create public policy that benefits the corporations over the citizens. Thomas Jefferson warned us about this issue.
The only way I can see to stop it is to take away the “civil rights” that corporations were supposedly given through the use of the word “person” in the 14th amendment, which freed the slaves. Corporations are considered “persons” through a legal fiction, and for that reason, it’s almost impossible to keep them out of the halls of congress (free speech, and all that). Since they have more money than God, whatever they want they get, because the people can’t outbid them.
I had very high hopes that Obama would be the Thomas Jefferson we need now, but my faith is beginning to slip…
Jonni, you are one of the gret people I met on-line!
Of course there are people trying to profit from the social system. Who don’t want to work and receiver there monthly check from the welfare. I don’t shave everybody over one comb as we say in the Netherlands, but there are always black sheep who make it difficult for the honest ones (like me
).
I remember a situation in Germany 15 years ago when a Minister was involved in an affair about a coin you use for shopping cards. His brother in law owned the firm who produced them and used the Ministers name and a blanco sheet of paper signed by the Minister for his marketing. Even though the Minister discovered that his brother in law had just taken his blanco letter without asking, he was banned. This is peanuts in fact, but especially in Germany they are very keen that nothing like this happens due to the history of a corrupt and finally intimidating government they had.
I find these hoaxes you are talking about very weird, yet frightened as I always looking for the truth.
What I don’t understand in this discussion over there about the health care reform is this: Why wouldn’t anybody not want to be better insured. The US are the richest country in the world and you have a health care system that’s at number 34(?) in the list.
In my opinion it’s against humanity to let people die because they are less profitable than others. That’s the case right now, right?
We had a reform here in the Netherlands as well and of course not everybody (including me) isn’t entirely happy with the new rules but it works much better than your current system.
Except when it comes to tooth care there is no talk about pre-existing conditions here in NL. If you get sick you get your medic care. Period. OK, there are here and there some things where you have to pay an additional fee, but never one that would bankrupt you or (god beware) your whole family. There are cases where people lose their homes, but it’s not because they can’t afford the doctors bill. It’s maybe because they can’t do their work anymore.
All the insurance companies here did handle a bonus system in the first year of the reform. People who didn’t get sick, get a part of their money back. That was to motivate people not to go with every ‘shit’ to the doctor. Now they changed the model into a version where you can choose your own risk. It’s something about 150,- euro ($ 200,-) that you have to pay for yourself. Let’s say you need medic care in a year and the costs are in total 2000,- euro, you just have to pay the first 150,- yourself. If you need medic care for 25,- euro in the whole year you pay this amount yourself.
I hope for all of you that you don’t listen to the horror stories about death panels a.s.o. This is totally bullshit.
Again, why wouldn’t anybody of you not to be insured in a way that nobody can deny you coverage? Why? Please teach me!
Bless you all,
Mario
Hey Mario. Glad to hear from you. You have an interesting question, but it doesn’t seem possible to answer it – people who are against health care reform are the folks who have been watching Fox News, which tells them 24 hours a day that the people who oppose corporate control of health care are socialists. Or Nazis.
The other day one of these dimwits asked Rep. Barney Frank, a gay Jew, why he supported “a Nazi policy” that endorses euthanasia (she was talking about the “death panel” issue, which will be impossible to explain to someone in the Netherlands, I’m afraid). Frank was remarkably restrained in his response, although he did call the person on her BS – but most progressive politicians just stand there and take it.
In other words, facts have nothing to do with it. Some people don’t care about facts. They just accept whatever they’re told, and the people they listen to are bought and paid for by the corporations that make money with our current “system.”
The “debate” reminds me of the crazy-making behaviors that are found in dysfunctional relationships. The abusive folks are represented by the radical Right, which makes completely nonsensical, truth-defying statements that are often downright insulting; and then the codependent folks, represented by everybody else, try to appease the crazies to keep them from doing something even more abusive tomorrow. It’s enough to make a person sick…
1. What’s wrong with being social? In the Netherlands there is a policy that the government takes care about people who are not able to help themselves and help them back on track. Of course there are cases where it just don’t work, but the Netherlands are a social state. When it comes to Nazis it means that the state would just be social to the national folks. Others could f… off.
2. We have a euthanasia law in the Netherlands. I understand that the information about our euthanasia law is totally misunderstood in the states. You can’t just go to your doctor and ask him to sleep you in. No, you have to be that ill that further living would be a punishment a.s.o. There are surley 100 rules and procedures. It’s not that easy. If you want to call the people who are deciding about it a panel, you can do so. But calling it a death panel that decides if you die or not is harsh. This isn’t the case. You can always change your mind and stay alive until you die normally.
3. I saw a video on Youtube where this Barney Frank (I think) called this girl who compared this reform with Hitlers regime, as intellectual as a dining room table or something like that.
Since your government communicates that open, I follow the developments in your country much more than I did in the past. The picture of the states over here in Europe (not just in the Netherlands) is that Americans like war and want to rule the world. This is not the picture what I have, don’t get me wrong. No, it’s the bitter reality amongst the people who didn’t ever communicate with real American people. I love America and the American people as I met on-line and in real life great inspiring people. Sometimes it hurts to hear people around me judging like that.
Mario, thank you for realizing that the American people are not as warlike and intent on empire-building as some of our government’s actions would imply. Most of us really are rather nice, if I do say so myself…
There is nothing wrong with being a socialist, or having a society take care of it’s own. But socialism became a bad word here in America during the labor union strikes back the early 20s. We don’t seem to be able to grow out of it. The McCarthy era may be over, but we don’t always act like it. It’s rather embarrassing.
Do European nations allow corporations to buy politicians and to flood the airwaves with pro-corporate balderdash to scare the people into voting the way they want them to? If not, how do you keep them from doing it?
We have an assisted suicide law here in Oregon, too. The “death panel” thing has nothing to do with real suicide or euthanasia. It is a hoax thought up by someone who represents the health care industry. The lie got picked up by right wing talk show hosts and they convinced a lot of old people that Obama was “going to pull the plug on Grandma”. I repeat – it’s a hoax, and has nothing to do with the kind of law that you, and Oregonians, are familiar with. Somebody who works for the health care industry just made it up to scare people into opposing the health care bill.
Yesterday they came up with another hoax, trying to tell us that Obama wants to kill off our older veterans. This hoax is called the “death book.” Somebody just made it up to scare old people, which is a crime.
I just read a wonderful post about the people in America who are dying because they are denied treatment by the insurance companies.
Go read it now.
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/goc/health_benefits.shtml
Check this out then you won’t believe all of the negative American TV adds about the Canadian Health System.
Although we do have some waiting for serices, NOBODY looses a house, or is refused for any “Pre conditions”
I am tired of the way information about our health system is misrepresented by those who want to make money on your health.
I’m a Canadian who knows that our health care system works. It would work better if all of our trained Dr’s and nurses were not lured down south so they could make MORE MONEY. Folks a government operated system will work for you if you just let it!
Thank you Delane. I wish more Americans could read your note instead of listening to the negative propaganda. And we do already have a government operated system that works. It’s called Medicare. But the propaganda works so well that old people stand up in Town Hall meetings and scream “keep government out of our Medicare!” Sigh…
excellent writing on this subject Jonni. Thank you for saying it clearly.
Very well stated.
Last winter my husband was suddenly unemployed and we were facing the prospect of finding health insurance. Pre-existing conditions and age were/are a factor. We already paid lot to be in a group plan so expected there would be a high premiums.
What surprise to find out that premiums (with the few plans we could get) would exceed unemployment benefits.
Fortunately for us, his place of business was able to find an investor and the business reopened. We are once again paying into a group plan and feeling relieved even though we still pay hefty premiums. Our logic is, “at least we were not turned down.”
People need to look at their health insurance, understand it, realize what is and isn’t covered, AND how they will pay for health insurance if they ever become unemployed.
Perhaps then, they will understand why reform is necessary.
How true, Helen. I couldn’t get a “normal” individual plan from the health insurance company I previously worked for because of a pre-existing condition that hasn’t affected my health in over 12 years. When I worked there I heard of a woman in her 20′s turned down because she was involved in a fender-bender during high school, and it statistically increased the risk of arthritis. One woman called whose husband had just got back from Iraq. He was no longer eligible for the military health insurance when she discovered she was pregnant. Our company turned both of them down, because pregnancy is a disqualifying pre-existing condition for both husband and wife (the baby might have health problems after it’s born and the company doesn’t want to get stuck with the claims).
But the truth is, people do understand why reform is necessary. According to a poll for Time Magazine, 56% of the respondents said they supported a plan that “Creates a government sponsored public health insurance option to compete with private health insurance plans.” 36% said no. We just have to make sure the politicians give us the plan we want.
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Helen, you said, “People need to look at their health insurance, understand it, realize what is and isn’t covered, AND how they will pay for health insurance if they ever become unemployed.”
The trickiest bit IS understanding the policies! It’s written in dense legalese, and it’s not all transparent to begin with, as Jonni describes.
I’ve only ever been insured briefly, and I remember really trying to GET what the information packets said, flipping from one spot to another, sorting, narrowing down … but never quite able to pin down some bits. Grr.
What most people don’t realize is that the customer service people at the insurance companies can’t figure it out, either. We had to answer questions about over 300 different contracts, and they clocked us to see how fast we could get someone off the phone. The error level was astounding. I helped write the documentation for the customer service folks, and our team of six all worked 40 hours a week changing and improving the documentation. Dang – it makes me feel dizzy just thinking about it. Talk about a stressful job.
Across the street in the Medicare office, which paid our company to answer the phones, the CSRs only had to understand one contract. So now you know why so many of your claims are paid incorrectly, and why the people who qualify for Medicare love it so much…
Wow, Jonni. Very clear, concise, and compelling. I’m sharing this to FaceBook.
Hey, maybe our artists’ community can have a health insurance co-op of some kind, as picturesquely described by your former boss.
Hey Xan – I’m hoping the people I (and millions of other people) voted for last year will give us a Medicare-type plan we can opt into so we don’t have to create a co-op on our own. Insurance works better when there are more people in the plan – that’s why true universal coverage, single-payer health care is the least expensive option (an option we won’t get, unfortunately, because it was taken off the table before talks even started…) I don’t think we can get enough people to move to our little village to support an insurance program, but who knows – we might have to come up with something if our elected officials let us down.
Exactly. Very disappointed in Obama for not sticking to his guns on the health plan, though single payer seemed to be getting more and more fuzzy even before the election.