A few words on why I am strongly supportive of the administration’s proposed healthcare reform…
My wife and I have a corporation for our small business, so we are paying corporate rates for healthcare. We have a plan with HealthNet, one that our insurance agent says is the plan he has too. My agent is a longtime member of our community (and I think I’m healthier than he is), so if it’s good enough for him then it’s good enough for me.
Our HMO plan allows us to choose any of the HMOs on their approved list, and our doctor of 25 years is on that list. It is not the absolute cheapest plan out there, but neither is it a luxury plan. There is no eye care, hearing or dental in our our plan, which is a shame since my dentist is urging me to begin $12k of dental work…
The two of us are healthy and in our 50’s, no existing conditions. I take two minor medications that cost me $45/mo in co-pay fees.
So… $890/Month
$890 a month. For two people. So what are we getting for $890 dollars a month? A fee that is up 12% this year, as it was the year before, and the year before that. That is more than 1/3 the cost of our mortgage, double the monthly payment of my Volkswagen. For what? For a tenuous promise that one day when I get really sick, the insurance company will take care of me.
But one misstep, one or two late payments, and we’ll be out of healthcare, no COBRA to tide us over, nowhere to go except the emergency room like all the poor people. Hard to imagine living in a million dollar house and being a poor person. Maybe we could find a different healthcare plan. But the anecdotal evidence is that it is almost impossible to get health insurance unless you already have it.
Now, I am not complaining about my situation, only explaining it to show HOW MUCH WORSE other people must have it. Healthcare is the largest cause of personal bankruptcy in this country, so it’s obvious that others have it far worse than I.
About his healthcare plan, President Obama says, “if you’re happy with the healthcare plan you have, you can keep it.” But what he doesn’t say is that you won’t be able to afford it a decade from now, unless things change. A lot. So actually the President’s plan is only a small, tentative step towards fixing the problem.
In short, this healthcare debacle cannot not continue, it must change.
And doing nothing is itself a choice — a choice that will leave millions of retiring boomers with healthcare bills to to be paid by the rest of the population, a choice far more expensive than anything the President is proposing.
Posted by hermosawave 
Posted by hermosawave 
Posted by hermosawave 
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