Angie’s {Open & Honest} » Just stuff from my everyday life

Savannah Brentnall - It always amazes me when people say that they don’t want the government deciding what medical care they can and can’t have. As though allowing the same decision to be made by a company whose only motive is profit is somehow better!

I’m appalled at how easily people in this country are scared by politicians with a vested interested in the health insurance companies. When did we stop being willing to question what we’re told and actually search out the facts for ourselves?

I’m from the UK so I grew up with the NHS. For all its faults, I never had to worry about whether I could afford to be sick. My husband and I were visiting the UK this summer and he broke his collarbone. We went straight to emergency and were seen by a doctor within 20 minutes. He had xrays (which were given to him on a CD so he could show his doctor at home) and was given a sling and prescription for pain meds. He later had a follow-up appointment with an ortho specialist. The cost? Zero. When he told the front desk that he wasn’t from the UK and was only visiting, they looked at him strangely and said “We don’t pay for health care in this country.” As though the very idea was offensive to them. And it is.

Linda - From what I have seen insurance companies only want to insure people who never go the the doctor & never intend to. They want our premiums and then if we get sick they want us to just quietly die and not hurt their bottom line. We can all accomplish that without paying out the premiums………spend it on enjoying life while we can and when it’s time to go we’ll at least know we didn’t contribute to insurance company greed.

I personally don’t have health insurance any more and haven’t had any for the last 7 yrs. since my husband lost the job he had that provided reasonably priced insurance for dependents (place closed after building new facility in California). He now gets health insurance from his employer at a reasonable rate but if I get added to the policy the monthly premium goes to over $600. We just don’t make enough to afford that. My job is part-time and there aren’t any benefits. I make a once-a-year visit to the doctor so I can get my blood pressure prescriptions renewed. In between visits I monitor my blood-pressure & blood sugar myself. The last office call fee was $95 and I suppose this next one will be more like $125. I pay it all up front out of pocket. I don’t get paps or mammograms. If something was found I couldn’t afford treatment anyway. If I had treatment & lived I’d have no choice but for me & my husband to live in total poverty the rest of our lives or take out bankruptcy & if I died it would leave my husband in the same boat—only with the cost of a funeral on top of it.(A whole other area of unnecessary greed.) Things won’t improve much when we both get on Social Security & Medicare. Part B, Part D & supplemental insurance would be about $800 a month for the both of us together, or more than 2/3 of our expected income.

The proposed health care reform will never work. The government can force insurance companies to accept everyone but if the price of premiums is higher than what people can afford, what good does that do? Same thing for making it illegal to not have health insurance…..if we can’t afford it now how will we afford it then? The penalty is a heck of a lot cheaper than the $6000-$10,000 a year for premiums plus deductibles and co-pays. And if we get sent to jail for not paying the penalty….well then we’ll have a roof over our heads, a place to sleep, our meals, cable TV, exercise area, library, and all our medical care provided…what’s not to like? It’s my Plan B for old age when the money runs out. Let Obama & the rest of the politicians put that in their pipes and smoke it.

That’s my rant on the subject, thanks for reading. I just can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for you to want to help people and have the insurance companies fighting you every step of the way.