Jobs vs Lives. re: Health Care

[walldude]

I see much discussion about the jobs that would be lost if we were to go to single payer health care. I don't want to see anyone lose their job. However, if it comes down to somebody's job vs the life of me or my family? Sorry find a new gig.

I don't know how many people are like me but here is my situation. I am self employed, I make a decent living, too decent to get medicare, but I can't get health care for my family. Why? Because some of the people in my family have the audacity to be... wait for it... SICK! I have a son with autism, my wife and I adopted a child with Muscular Dystrophy and my wife has heart disease (runs in her family).

I can't get insurance at any price because... well... because WE CAN'T HAVE SICK PEOPLE BEING INSURED. THAT WOULD KILL OUR PROFIT MARGIN. At this point for me the only way out is a non-profit health care system. Any health care system that works on a for profit basis will never help people like me.

Luckily the MD association gives free care to my son and I can afford right now to pay doctors on a per visit basis because many will work on a sliding scale, but my luck is running thin. My wife had chest pains a few months ago and a 4 hour trip to the emergency room was almost 10 grand. I'm going to be paying on that one for awhile. We are one serious hospital visit away from losing everything. And that would come after we are told, " well this surgery could save you but you can't afford it."

Makes you wonder where this "great country" is that the repukes talk about. Any country that puts profit margins ahead of the health of it's people is seriously messed up.

[Deja Q]

1. K&R. You are absolutely spot-on.

I'm so sorry for what you're having to endure. :(

:grouphug:

[walldude]

4. Thanks...

I can always count on you Mac guys to be warm hearted when not talking about computers :rofl: :toast:

[Deja Q]

5. !

:rofl:

:toast:

:pals:

I may have no social life and therefore get passionate over computers, no puns intended, but my heart is never in the wrong place. Besides, it went to visit my nuts and my willie acted like a hockey stuck and hit it back up... :crazy:

[walldude]

6. LMAO... I actually enjoyed our computer debate.. It's nice sometimes

to get worked up over stuff that isn't really important.. Keeps us grounded. One day we'll have to do Star Trek vs Star Wars...

[blaze]

2. Would you please

send your short and to the point experience to: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

[walldude]

7. Done.. thanks for the linky... n/t

[Ms. Toad]

10. Just don't expect a response...

I sent our experience at least a month ago, with no acknowledgement at all.

[walldude]

12. Yeah I checked the "no response" box anyway.

Nice to just get it off my chest.

[Ms. Toad]

16. Since he reads 10 pieces of correspondence a day

and I timed it in connection with his one of his health summits, I had hoped it might be one of the 10. I figured if it was I might get a response.

[OregonBlue]

3. Any country that puts profit margins ahead of the health of it's people is seriously messed up.

Couldn't agree with you more. K & R

[aquamarina]

8. The thing is -

the only jobs that will be lost are the layers of paper-pushers in the health insurance industry. If single payer is implemented real jobs won't be lost. In fact, I'd bet that if single payer was implemented more jobs would be created. Why? Because business would be able to redirect the money they spend on health insurance back to their businesses. This nonsense about job loss is just a red herring put out there by the insurance companies.

Best wishes to you and your family.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Ms. Toad]

9. I'm with you -

since I refer to myself and everyone in my family as uninsurable. Just in case you aren't aware, there are a couple of options.

Every state is required to have a high risk pool of some sort. It ain't pretty - but if you can afford to pay an arm and a leg it is available. In Ohio, the premium is around $1000 a month, and there are rolling plans so there is always something available within a month. As to pre-existing conditions - if there is no gap in coverage longer than 63 days they have to cover them. Not sure if the high risk pools can get out of covering them at all.

There's also short term insurance available. Since you have a business to protect, it might be worth it to get your wife and kids covered to protect against catastrophic loss. Basically, there are a half dozen questions to answer which exclude a few really high risk categories like HIV+, but other than that cheap coverage is available for everything EXCEPT pre-existing conditions. So - your wife's heart problems wouldn't be covered, but if she developed something else catastrophic it would be covered. Deductibles are generally high ($1000-$10,000) but coverage is really cheap ($100-$200 for six months or so).

Good Luck. Once my 19 year old daughter graduates from college (or has to drop out because she can't function well enough to handle it anymore) I'll be looking for coverage for her. She was diagnosed recently with a disease for which the treatment is a transplant, and which requires costly annual screening for cancer for the rest of her life.

[walldude]

11. Is this a state thing? I have tried many insurance companies

and none will take me at any price. There are places in my state that work on sliding scales and we have been using those for my kids but I don't think my state has any "high risk pool".

And this short term you speak of.. do you have a link to a company that provides it? All the places I have tried, and I have tried them all, have just shot me down even at their most expensive rates of $1500 a month with a $5000 deductible. None have mentioned any other type of coverage... Not even my business insurance guy who is pretty cool for an insurance dude could help me.

[Ms. Toad]

15. Don't go to the insurance companies and apply for coverage

Even if they are in the states' high risk pool, chances are if you don't hold your mouth just the right way they won't tell you about it. If you just go through the normal application process - you are right, they will not cover you (even if you are willing to forgo coverage for the pre-existing condition).

The mechanism varies by state, and some are not worth a whole lot, but I'm pretty sure every state has to have one. In Ohio, you watch the newspaper ads for Open Enrollment. Here's the link with phone numbers for each state: http://www.healthinsurance.org/risk_pools/ (The article says 34 states have pools - I'm pretty sure each state has to have some means of covering otherwise uninsurable folks. I'll keep looking)

Here's a link to short term insurance (cheap, high deductible, and doesn't cover pre-existing conditions - just a back up to prevent disaster): http://www.short-termhealthinsurance.com/

You can stay on it pretty much forever - but you'll have to change plans every 6-18 months.

I used them because I had a single pre-existing condition that freaked out insurance providers (and every doctor who ever treated me told me it posed no long term health risks and virtually no chance of returning.) The short term insurance covered me for everything else - and even if the doctors were wrong, at worst I was stuck back in the high risk pool. In the mean time, I was saving $11,000 or so a year.

Edited to add: Here's a summary of HIPPA, which is what mandates the availability of insurance:

>>The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) required that all states implement policies that guarantee access by small businesses and "eligible individuals" to health insurance of some kind. HIPAA further requires that "eligible individuals" be guaranteed access to some type of coverage regardless of pre-existing medical conditions.

To be considered an "eligible individual," an applicant must have had 18 months of prior coverage under a group plan, have elected and exhausted continued benefits coverage under COBRA (typically 18 months), and not be eligible for any other group health coverage.

HIPAA grants states flexibility in addressing the requirements for "eligible individuals." Most states made one of two choices. About half require insurers serving the individual health insurance market to guarantee-issue at least one plan. The other half opted to expand or create qualified HIPs (following the National Association of Insurance Commissioner's Model Health Plan for Uninsurable Individuals Act) to meet the needs of those persons.<< http://www.jpands.org/hacienda/meier.html

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. Not to mention many new gigs would be created.

If everyone had health care, we would obviously need many more health care providers and suppport staff. We would have to build new clinics, hospitals and medical/nursing/technical schools and employ all their attenendent staff. It would also be a lot more rewarding jobs than those based on how can we screw people and get away with it. Think of it, jobs that actually help people and provide a positive aspect to society!

[Vinca]

17. My husband and I are in a similar position.

Self-employed and among the leper class who are too well off for Medicaid and too poor for private health insurance if they would cover us. They won't, by the way. We also have pre-existing conditions, plus we've had the audacity to age. Insurance company employees can get in the job line behind the textile workers. steel makers, auto makers, book binders, shoe manufacturers and other workers who have had their jobs outsourced.

[raccoon]

18. K&R. nt

[mmonk]

19. The reason unemployment will get higher and wages will stagnate

is because of the rising costs of healthcare on business. The present course would insure that reality whereby single payer would remove that yoke on business allowing for more employment, domestic job availability, and rising wages.

[OneBlueSky]

20. ya know, some of those jobs could be absorbed by the new system . . .

which will need people to administer it -- although probably not as many as are now working for health insurance companies . . . still, the number of jobs that will be lost is not equal to the number of current insurance company employees . . . some will be able to find work helping make single payer work . . .