When I was 16 my parents health care came through my Moms job. Mom didn't have a great job, she worked as a manager over the Cashiers at Lumberjack. The benefits they had were fabulous. Now that I'm an adult I can really appreciate just how fabulous they were. Coverage for all four of us was a whopping $50 a month. And the best thing, that is the PPO plan.
Anyone who has ever had to go through HMO hell understands. HMO's make it difficult to get seen and this is done intentionally. First they assign you to a primary care physician. You and several thousand of your closest neighbors. Then when you get sick you can't go to a specialist, you have to go to the primary care doc. Which is gonna take like 6 weeks to get an appointment. I've learned that you have to scream bloody murder and then you will get a priority appointment.
We went to good doctors too. It was excellent insurance. If you wanted to go see a dermatologist... you just opened up the booklet and picked one on the list. Same thing with counselors. Yes thats right. We could go to counseling on my Moms insurance and only made the $15 copay.
Health insurance is one of those things that you don't think about till you need it. Then its vitally important. The wrong illness or accident can wipe you out financially. If you need some type of organ transplant, you don't even get on the list until you either prove you can pay OR prove your insurance will cover it and you can pay whats left over. There are people dying right now because they don't have insurance.
Its a good thing that my Mom had such awesome insurance. Or is it? Should the ability to get quality healthcare really be tied to gainful employment? Does that make sense? There are some serious things to think about when it comes to the way we deal with and fund health insurance.
Is healthcare a right?
or is it an earned privaledge?
If you tie healthcare to employment then you create situation where at the exact time you REALLY need it, you are no longer well enough to work, then you no longer have health care. What if my Mom had gotten cancer? From the time she became too sick to work, we would have only had 1 month of health insurance left. Not only that but since the cancer is a pre-existing condition, we couldn't get her on another policy.
Well that leaves Medicaid right? Nope. To qualify for medicaid a family of four has to have under $250 a month income. Serious.
I have a friend right now that almost died last year. She is too sick to work but since there is hope that she may get better some day, she's not eligible for Disability. So she lives on $1000 a month child support, with her 3 kids. But the State says she makes too much money to qualify for Medicaid. Who can live on $1000 a month? With 3 kids. She didn't do anything wrong. She's not lazy. She just had her appendix burst. It almost killed her. And now she can't get the medical care she needs to get well enough to get back to work.
My job wants $660 a month for insurance for me and the kids. Who the hell can afford that? For three healthy kids that never go to the doctor. Insurance splits in Texas are a joke. If we ever had a catastrope I have my parents. But what about people that don't? What about people whose jobs don't offer insurance and they have kids.
The funny thing about not getting kids medical attention is that one way or another we the tax payer end up paying for it. I think every child in America deserves free health check ups. At least once a year. More twice a year for kids under five. As a society it is more cost efficient to pay for a kid with earaches to have ear shunts and antibiotics than it is to pay for 12 years of deaf education. That says nothing of helping this kid out of the misery that are frequent ear aches. Lets get this kid to a doctor instead of pouring warm olive oil down their ear and praying for the best. No kid in America should go without medical treatment.
I read that Congress passed an expantion of SCHIP. SCHIP is the heath care plan for kids whose parents make too much for Medicaid but don't have insurance.
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200901141624DOWJONESDJONLINE000855_FORTUNE5.htm
In California this program is called Healthy Families.
A family of four making under $4417 qualifies.
In Texas that same family would have to earn under $3300
The expansion of SCHIP will increase the monthly amount to $5083. Which seems like alot but you have to pay monthly premiums and copays for this program.
I have noticed that the loudest oposition to expanding SCHIP is from people who now have insurance at their jobs but didn't before.
Honestly. I think we are a nation of haters.
If anyone should be mad it should be me. My exhusband and his girlfriend live on welfare. So they get their kids seen by doctors for free while I have to pay for MY kids to go to the doctors. So it doesn't make me happy to think that if that slug or his whale girlfriend did manage to get a job that paid enough that their welfare case got closed, my taxes would STILL be paying for their healthcare. But you know what, its not their kids fault that the parents suck. Its no childs fault. And they shouldn't be made to feel the consequences.
Expanding SCHIP is a good first step but lots of other things need to be done:
1. Remove health insurance from being linked to employment. Sick people can't work. Duh.
2. HMO's should not be a for profit business. We need to make it so that only nonprofits are allowed to operate as health insurance companies. This is the way foster care agencies are. No one should be allowed to profit from someone elses misery.
3. All kids should get yearly check ups. Damn get volunteer doctors to do it during gym class once a year. Its just an ounce of prevention.
4. We need to wrap our minds around the fact that health care is a RIGHT in a civilized society.
