Why We Need Health Care Reform
July 30th, 2010 | EdWords | 10 Comments
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If I weren’t so angry about it, I’d be amused by the opponents of health care reform who just don’t get what it’s like for those Americans who either can’t afford or can’t get coverage. Many of you who have health insurance through an employer or are fortunate enough to be able to buy it on the individual market don’t understand what it’s like to be on the outside looking in. Maybe this letter my wife just sent to an insurer that just denied her coverage will help those who think that private enterprise is the only answer to comprehend what the real world is like. Oh, and you’ll notice that the Tea Party folks aren’t the only ones angry right now.
Dear (Unnamed Insurance Company),
I wish to call your attention to a double irony that would otherwise escape your notice.
Today, I received in the mail a flyer titled: (Unnamed Insurance Company) Cares. The message suggests that you want me to talk to my doctor about having a mammogram every 1-2 years. So what’s wrong with that? Here’s what’s wrong– if you check your records you will find that you paid for my double mastectomy after my breast cancer diagnosis in 1994. I no longer have breast tissue. I don’t need a mammogram.
But WAIT! There’s MORE! My husband’s job was eliminated in March of 2009, and our Cobra coverage will run out in a few months, and you have informed me that I don’t qualify for individual coverage because, it’s true, I also have MS. No cancer since the mastectomy. I am well, I am fit. I exercise and eat a healthy diet. I don’t take any medication, but none of that matters a bit because the truth is YOU DON’T GIVE A RAT’S ASS ABOUT ME!! In spite of what your flyer says, you do not care.
Please, take me off your mailing list.
Lisa Hartman
Topics: health care reform, insurance companies, Obamacare, opinion
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am I the only one who didn’t get a picture??
I got the picture pretty clearly from the words – no pen and ink and color – but a very clear picture.
May I offer a small suggestion? Copy your state insurance commissioner, and if the redacted insurance company is not headquartered in your own state – copy their HQ state insurance commissioner as well.
I cannot guarantee it will make a difference, but it might.
If you have a congressional representative who supported health care reform you and your wife might want to copy their office as well. It may help your congressman / congresswoman in the continuing conflict over the attempts to repeal the legislation.
Best of luck!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ed Stein, Senior Biz. Senior Biz said: Why We Need Health Care Reform | edsteinink.com http://bit.ly/bDDHNr [...]
Incredible. It will be interesting to hear (over this website/discussion?) if suggestions like Dog gone’s make any kind of impression. This is the crying injustice of the American system that so many people just don’t seem to get, which unfortunately includes a number of my relatives.
Many people that oppose Universal Healthcare say that one of the main reasons they oppose it is because in countries where there is Universal Healthcare “people have to wait Months to see a doctor when they are sick” and that “America has the Best Possible System so don’t change it”. I and other knowledgeable people know that it is a Lie but the insurance company supporters continue to spread the Lies. Most of the insurance company supporters, (mostly very well off conservatives), either don’t care or are so gullible that they just believe Anything that their conservative (Insurance company paid) leaders say.
What we need now is MANY of the average people from those countries to start speaking the Truth in American media and blogs such as this. Those who believe that the Universal Healthcare of other countries is a Nightmare need to hear the TRUTH from people that are actually a part of that system and use it regularly. Meanwhile I and my Liberal friends will continue to try to fight the Lies of the insurance company supporters the best we can but a little international help would be welcomed. Speak Up!
One day, future generations will look back at our generation (and maybe–for once–at the “greatest generation” that proceeded it, and wonder: how could healthcare (and access to healthcare) for all US citizens not be understood-and paid for by all–as a basic right in our country?
The next question asked will be: how immoral and insane those folks must have been during these years to permit “profits” (by parties other than the actual healthcare providers) to be an element (if not the “driver”) of healthcare (or access to healthcare) in our country.
What an immoral and callous bunch of folks we live amongst!
Shame!! ( A concept that apparently eludes many folks these days also.)
Thank you for posting but next time, please publicize the name of the health plan. As with any for profit business, insurers respond to negative publicity. Second, investigate the state high risk pool immediately, MS automatically makes Lisa although not Ed available for coverage immediately under the plan Gov. Ritter unveiled on July 6. The federal health insurance reform as enacted March 23, 2010 is a small step in the right direction but the devil is in the details and this federal law is being implemented by 50 statehouses and against extraordinarily well-funded opponents. The profit margins of insurers are nothing compared to much of the rest of the for-profit health care industry. Get informed and get involved. Oppose efforts to repeal reform but understand that without additional systemic and system-wide changes increased access to health care is not sustainable.
While High Risk Pools are better than nothing (barely) a lot of people can not afford $640/month for a $10,000 deductible policy. I have been very fortunate in recently being accepted by the VA Health Care System, an alternative I had not earlier thought of. Not everyone has that alternative.
My state representative (a Democrat) sent me an unbelievable response to my concerns over her no vote on health care reform telling me that she was concerned about the “cost” and “potential job losses at 3M”!! In addition to my obvious initial response, I’ve forwarded this letter to remind her of the costs of the current “system”. I even suggested a win-win, where we could save the money to pay for health care reform and save the lives of our serving men and women by getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Check out Rocky Mountain Health Plans. You might be surprised by a company that is picking up all the “uninsured” pre-existing group and I think the prices are good. I have used them for years and their service is to die for.
There is a problem with the way people look at doing business or providing a service right now. It’s as if they know only so much and if you need more you either don’t get it or are forced to go someplace else. CU treats Rhuematoid Arthritis, but not Osteoarthritis, HUm?
If you have Diabeties and a Heart condition that’s ok but if you have just a heart murmer, forget it. If they can’t throw a pill at you, they don’t want anything to do with you. Even if you have been scientifically diagnosed with allergies, you are crazy, take a psycotropick drug and get out of here.
If you don’t take CoQ10 with your heart drugs you will die! (just making fun) If you doin’t take magnessium and Folate etc. you will get sicker from the pills than if you did not take them. Science isn’t very scientific and if you do the guessing you are “stupid” if they do the guessing they are giving an “educated guess”.
You can pay for all the insurance you want but you are a test dummy at the mercy of who ever tells you whatever.
Now they want you to have a “Medical Home”. Of course, that means you need to fall into the catagories they have predetermined have the most people. (Everybody else get off of the bus). If you have been taking pill X and a Medical Home Doctor doesn’t know you and thinks you should take pill Y because they are getting paid by the pharma then what if you can’t take that? It just time and money out of your pocket not theirs. “We don’t have time to serve everyone on a personal level.”
I think a book at the library would be cheaper and probably more accurate and up to date. How’s that for frustration with the Medical establishment!
I can’t wait to read your tips.