My health care bill is $515 per month and doesn’t cover any prescription medication. It’s a $65 dollar monthly hike over last year’s rate – that about $780 more than I paid last year - a 15% annual increase. That increase comes during a time of recession and earned interest rates of about 1.5%.
To those who read this blog, we can’t let this opportunity to pass health care reform slip through our fingers.
I’ve got a young friend who is undergoing treatment for cancer at the Mayo Clinic. Her name is Emily. She’s 21 and has lymphoma. She has limited insurance. Yet, amazingly, the doctors and nurses at Mayo are doing all that they can to save her life. She is one of those people who are happy and outgoing and loving and kind. When healthy, she exudes energy and brings a smile to your face in a nano-second. It’s hard to grasp that her young life is in jeopardy.
Yet without the compassionate care provided at Mayo – through their uninsured patient fund – Emily would be not be alive today. Advanced chemotherapy has extended her life. Yet, the battle to overcome cancer is still raging. She’s due to have a bone marrow transplant in about one week. With luck, prayers and the skill of doctors, Emily will survive.
Hospitals such as Mayo cannot continue to provide this type of care without escalating the cost for its insured patients. There is no question that providing care right now for the uninsured is baked into the cost of everyone’s insurance. Yet, we continue to get less coverage, at higher cost, and the fears of paying for a major illness often keep us up at night.
In my own case, I have tried to get lower-cost insurance from the same provider but was turned down. In fact, they advertise a lower cost option as accessible and comprehensive for people who buy their own insurance – yet I don’t know who they sell it to. I’d like at least to get prescription coverage as part of my insurance. What if I got cancer? I couldn’t afford the medication. And I’m not alone.
Not being able to pay medical bills is one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcies. In 2007 – before the recession, 60 percent of people who declared bankruptcy cited medical reasons as the cause (either they were too sick to work, they had mortgaged their homes to pay medical bills or their out-of-pocket costs were unmanageable.) That’s according to a study done by Harvard Medical School.
The lead author, Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., said "Unless you're a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you're one illness away from financial ruin in this country. If an illness is long enough and expensive enough, private insurance offers very little protection against medical bankruptcy, and that's the major finding in our study."
The health care insurance system is flawed. I don’t think any of us can deny that. Congress is ready to finalize a health care plan. We’re almost there. We just need to wait now for Scott Brown to be sworn in as the replacement for the late Ted Kennedy. The health care plan has its critics and its supporters. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a start. Nothing in life is perfect – that much is true.
People are realizing that health care coverage has become part of our rights rather than a privilege. It can even be interpreted as such by the Declaration of Independence signed in 1776. I quote, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Let’s define those words as they relate to our lives as Americans today.
• Life: the ability to do everything possible to live, aided by surgeons and physicians when needed.
• Liberty: the freedom to be able to get health care when you are sick.
• Pursuit of happiness: Being sick is being miserable. Yes, some people put on a brave front, others simply endure, but many cry out in pain and anguish. Easing their pain is humane. It’s American.
Let’s move on to the notion that obtaining coverage should be paid for by employers or through Medicaid and Medicare. Many people without coverage do have jobs. Their employers have decided not to offer health care coverage because of the cost and they need to stay competitive to remain in business. For our young people who are just starting out, they find that their paycheck is barely enough to cover food, rent and transportation without adding another couple hundred dollars a month or more for health care. Medicare payments to hospitals don’t cover the true cost of care. There are many older people who don’t yet qualify for Medicare who are in that same boat as the younger generation: they simply can’t afford health care.
According to the census numbers, in 2007 there were 45.7 million uninsured Americans. Yet, a report issued by Families USA showed that 86.7 million Americans (that’s nearly double) were without health care for some period of time from 2007 to 2008. Let’s see, there’s about 9 million residents in Michigan. So add another 8.5 states with the same population as Michigan and you can begin to imagine the scope of the problem.
For a few months in 2009, those Americans included two of my own children, who were dropped from their Dad’s health care coverage – and that was through an automaker that decided it was cheaper for the company to have my ex go on Medicare rather than pay for a family insurance plan. As a retiree, what do you do? We had to scramble to find coverage for our young adult children. Now, my son is covered only for the minimal needs, just to keep it affordable. And my daughter is covered by a new employer.
What are regular people saying about health care coverage? Here are some comments made by readers in Sunday’s Free Press.
• “I have insurance. But every year, I have to pay way more than I did before and the coverage is less and less. There are too many problems in the current system to keep things going as they are. Something needs to be done.”
• Another reader, responding to Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts, writes: Hopefully, now, the Democrats will be more transparent and there won’t be any closed meetings and backroom deals. We need health care reform, but let’s do it right!
Yet another reader, Thomas Hinsberg of Detroit, makes a compelling argument that we are rallying around the Haitians in the aftermath of their devasting earthquake, while ignoring the outcry of the 30 million Americans who could be insured under a national health care plan."Is it because they are not on national T.V. or in the daily news?," he ponders.
Congress has squeaked out a plan, replete with concessions. Negotiating with special interests has surely muddied the waters. But that is no reason to keep the status quo. Reform is never easy. But not passing health care legislation is cowardly and irresponsible. Was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 perfect when adopted? No. But, it was the right thing to do for America – to end racial segregation and extend voting rights. It was a legal declaration for equality among people of all races.
Not passing health care reform would be a travesty. Where is the outrage? You might think, “What can I do about it? I’m just one person.” It’s simple: make your voice heard. Talk to your neighbors and friends – get their take on it and express your opinion. Let’s not hide and be the silent majority – not in this day and age of instant internet communication, cell phones and Facebook.
President Obama will speak about health care legislation during his State of the Union address on Wednesday night. Listen to it or watch it. In the next week, my challenge to you is to contact your representative in Congress and make your voice heard. For those who live in Livonia or Canton, that would be Congressman Thaddeus McCotter.
Let’s not forget the Emilys and our children and our seniors in this dilemma. If you have good health, do everything you can to keep yourself healthy. If you aren’t in good health, know that the chance to become healthy and get over illness should be a right and not a privilege. Right now, that right is quickly slipping away.
