Election & Healthcare

After much discussion in our coffee shop the temperaments of customers quite frequently flared up on both sides. I received many emails from patrons loyal to one political party, or the other, to convince me how to vote. I had never been in this situation, simply because I had no idea who I would vote for until about two month before the election.

But I did decide, and I would like to share why I voted the way I did. “Yes”, I think the Republican Party was fiscally irresponsible in many ways; “Yes”, I am not certain the war in Iraq is justified; and “Yes”, I am not sure the Presidential Team the R.P. elected was exactly what we needed and was able to direct our country based on voting records, etc..

But, there was one agenda item that swayed me to vote for Obama. The issue of healt care! For the life of me I am not able to understand why we as a prosperous nation do not have universal healthcare.

Before you write any comments on this Blog, please consider the following situation:

Imagine you have healthcare now through your employer . . . (then you are not so much concerned about healthcare) . . . but now imagine that you lose your employment.

You will then have the opportunity to purchase Insurance through COBRA , . . . if you can afford it, because the rates are out of this world. Now, you may apply for insurance (for a 50 year old male/female) the monthly premium will be around $ 600-700, with a $2,500.00 deductable and then 80/20 split (meaning they will pay 80% and you will pay 20%) until you reach a $5,000 limit, then 100% will be assumed by the insurance.

The problem is that if you have any pre-existing condition(s), the insurance has the right to exclude the condition for a certain period of time, or they may exclude it totally . . . or they may not accept you at all! So you will be without insurance. (Welcome to the real world!)

But let us assume that you are not able to purchase insurance after you recently became unemployed, because of the staggering insurance premium rates and your doctor diagnoses you with Leukemia. You will need extensive treatments, and of course you will receive treatments, but the medical community will invoice you . . . and demand payments at some point.

And here is the catch: You will have to pay, simply because you have assets (house, savings, etc). In other words, you worked your entire life, and suddenly. . you may lose everything. (And yes, the medical community will allow you to make payments, . . .you will make them until you die!

But it gets better: Let’s assume you have no assets and you receive treatments, then those who pay insurance premiums pay indirectly for you. (Is that the American way?)

It makes no sense! Explain to me how healthcare can not be a human right. Why would it not be possible if every working American pays a certain amount of their income toward a universal insurance plan?

Those who mock the idea, often mock Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Norway, Canada and the list goes on. They argue that the system is not working . . . but I assure you (I have lived there) it is working and has been working for a long time. If indeed the American healthcare system is the best, then why is infant mortality the highest in the US among all other industrial nations?

There are some significant differences between the those countries and ours. One of the main differences is, that people in Europe have a different connection to their own life. They understand that a bypass surgery at the age of 92 is not necessary, since it adds nothing to the quality of life. They understand that keeping people alive under the worse circumstances ("just because we can") is simply stupid. Why keep a feeding tube in someone’s body, if we know that the person will die?

This European understanding about the quality of a human life drives the cost down and is very reasonable in comparison to ours, where we demand ANYTHING possible to keep us alive!

Furthermore, we must understand the importance of preventative care. If we would all receive a yearly checkup of our body we would reduce the cost of care dramatically. (Just a thought)

The control of insurance premium cost is determined by the insurance. Not only do they control premiums, but they also control the pay- out- amount to the medical communities for their services. And there is the catch: Premiums are not regulated by the pool of served clients and their care cost, but by the annual return of investments the insurance provider has annually.

No, my friends this is not the American Way! The lobbyist of insurance companies have raped us as consumers and the doctors. Don't even get me started on the pharmaceutical industry and for-profit nursing home care provider.

So now you know it. I am for change. Change in a very fundamental way. Churches are not willing to take on the issue and neither is the medical community and that is the reason why I rely on us, the American people, to seek justice for all of us, especially those who do not have a voice.