It’s probably the biggest thing happening right now in our country. In short, yes our health care system needs major reform. We’ve known that for many years now but have really failed to address the biggest problem it has, cost. Prices for care continue to rise as accessibility to care continues to drop. People use Emergency Departments for their family care. Procedures and medications are forgone because of how expensive they are. Medical bills drive go unpaid and drive people into bankruptcy. I don’t understand why there’s an argument against reforming our current system. It’s dated, dysfunctional and way too damned expensive for not covering more people than it does already. I’ve heard excuses for why we shouldn’t have a public option and none of them were good.
For instance, this week while riding the shuttle bus to class I overheard a girl saying she wanted “poor people” to have health care but didn’t want everyone to be have to take a government run health plan. The first thought in my mind was that reforming the health care system isn’t just about getting “poor people” health care. It’s about getting health care to people who work three part time jobs or put in 12 hour days or 80 hour weeks to keep the bills paid. They aren’t “poor” per se but working part time at most jobs doesn’t get you health care benefits. At jobs that do offer a health plan to their employees it’s usually at a pretty sizable monthly premium.
I also don’t think anyone is going to be forced to take a public health plan, it’s one option among many. For you, if the public option makes more sense, is more affordable and offers good care, take it. If not, stick to your current plan. If you don’t have a health plan, well guess what? Now you do. Where’s the problem?
Health care reform is for those who work one full time job at a company that does not provide benefits to their employees because the cost of an employer health plan is too much for the company to take on.
Health care reform is for people still enrolled full time in college but have passed the age where their parents can keep them on their plan.
Health care reform is for people who pay an arm and a leg for their benefits now to have a choice for a equally comprehensive but less expensive health plan through the government.
Health care reform is not “just for poor people to get health insurance”. And it’s that the kind of uninformed, ignorant opinion that causes problems in getting things done.
It’s about bridging the gap between those who are Medicaid eligible and those who can afford to buy their own insurance because there are millions of people who make too much money to qualify for state health insurance but can’t afford to buy their own plan because they’re absurdly priced.
“I don’t want to have to pay the cost of insurance for an irresponsible person who is unemployed with 6 kids”. Don’t give me that argument. We already DO pay for insurance for those in a situation like that but Medicaid does much, much more than that and to stereotype a government funded health plan like that, again, is uninformed and ignorant.
I also heard this one: “Places in Europe like, London, have socialized health care and they have to wait 6 months to even get to see a doctor”. Aside from the geographical stupidity of that statement, you’re going to have wait times to see certain types of doctors no matter what kind of health system you have. Socialized or commercial. There are specialists in this country who have average wait times of 3-6 months. Dermatology practices are ones that come to my mind right now. To insinuate that a new public health option is going to immediately make everyone wait months to see a doctor is far-fetched at best. Yes, there will probably be longer waits on average but that really isn’t a solid argument against public health care. There is already a shortage of health-care providers and that’s another issue that will have to be addressed more than it is right now. And by the way, those places in Europe, like London, and even closer to us, like Toronto, that do have public health care do pretty well for themselves.
I’ll blab about one more: “The government couldn’t even handle the cash for klunkers program, dealerships still haven’t gotten their money for it, how could they possibly manage a national health plan?” Spoken like someone who has never filed a tax return and been entitled to a refund. It’s not like an ATM where you request money and get it right there. Your tax refund check sometimes shows up in a few weeks, or a month or two. Or in the case of my family, we got a refund for our 2007 income tax last year, found out a month ago we owed more than we paid on our 2007 income taxes and had to cut a check back to the IRS and then a week ago found out that the amount the IRS said we owed was $1.30 more than it should have been. That was for our 2007 income taxes. See? It depends. It’s not a payment-on-demand system and health plans aren’t either. Even now, health care providers are not immediately reimbursed for their services. There’s a pretty substantial lag time between time of service and time of payment from insurance companies. It’s like that for all insurance plans, Medicaid, Medicare and all private commercial insurers. It takes time to get the check, but it does show up.
I could write more about this but I’ve run out of recent examples. There will probably be more that come up in the future but the point I’m driving at is there is no real, valid, solid reason why we shouldn’t change the way our health care system in this country operates. There just isn’t a reason for not having a public health option to choose.
I was woken up this morning by shouts of “HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!” and Christy, Brae and Finn plopping down on the bed next to me with hands full of gifts. A nice way to be greeted in the morning! I’ll tell you it’s a great feeling. So, in my reusable WalMart shopping bag, Brae gave me a new picture of him framed in different colored popsicle sticks, all colors chosen by him of course, a coffee mug with his handprints on it and his name (which I used this morning for my coffee), a “Weather Rock” which is exactly what it sounds like. It was painted by Braeden himself and came with instructions on how to use it. Hang it outside and…if it’s wet, it’s raining, if it’s white it’s snowing, if it’s moving, it’s windy, if it’s warm it’s sunny outside and if it’s missing, you’ve been ripped off. Now is that perfect for my sense of humor or what? Brae (and his Gram) know me quite well. I also got a homemade Father’s Day card from Brae with Superman on the front and inside it says “You’re my superhero”. That’s going on the wall. =o)
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