To me health care is the quality of life issue that currently disturbs me more than the illiterates we are graduating every year from public school here in California. Now don't mistake me for someone who wants a National Health System in the European sense. I am not looking to do that. I am not even sure it is necessary to fix the problem of no health care coverage for Americans not even poor ones. I am disturbed by the fact that laws and rights concerning our health care have not kept up with our needs YET pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies are the only parties reaping the benefits...not the doctors, the hospitals, and certainly not the patients. Health insurance rules tick me off but I know it is one of those issues that everyone thinks it is all or nothing...either a National Health System or just leave it as it is, but I cannot agree with either. My personal experience taught me that. Apparently it is now a topic I think will become as important to people as public school education and of course also the most ignored topic becuase it is too hard to fix just like public school education. Although the LA Times had an aritcle Sunday about states that are trying things on their own to provide health coverage for the uninsured and uninsurable. I am not looking for my state government to pay for me...but I would like the tools to help me take care of myself and my family and not worry that I will be bankrupt because I get a disease I cannot afford or that I would have to keep working at a job while I am dying of cancer or if my baby is ill to have to keep working in order to keep my benefits going...Like I said this a quality of life issue that I want improved for all WORKING people. I had a premature baby and unless I keep a job there is NO way I can get insurance for my baby boy even if I want to PAY any price for it. He is uninsurable. A word that should be eradicated in the discussion of health insurance. We could start with simple things like: First and foremost, an insurance company cannot deny health insurance for preexisting conditions period, if I am willing to pay more. Health insurance is not car insurance. I don't NOT deserve health insurance because I was sick...it is not the same thing as being a bad driver...sad thing is even a bad driver can get car insurance but a sick person cannot. I had a premature baby and then I lost my job and I if did not get a job right away I would be without health insurance because no one would insure my baby for being premature. If had not been working when I had him I would not even have COBRA. A woman at my church was dying of cancer and had to keep working and not be with her family just to keep her health insurance to pay for her chemotherapy. She was 40 so no Medicare to kick in until she was in hospice or destitute. She kept her job and worked literally until 2 days before she died from breast cancer. If she could have qualified for health insurance and could pay for it she would not have spent her last days filing at her desk, but with her kids. My other friend is dying of brain cancer and she had to keep her job. She is 38 otherwise she will not get her chemotherapy treatments covered. She comes to work unable really to do anything just stays for the benefits...this is a quality of life issue for all of us good hard working people that has to be changed. Bankruptcies abound because of people going under because of medical bills unpaid...not because they bought too much at Nordstrom's. I only know this is an issue that changed my life because when I was in Rome, Italy where my son was born premature unexpectedly during a vacation I remember the whole time I could never think of his condition the first 48 hours because I was racing in my mind about how I was going to pay to for it all even with insurance and if insurance was going to cover it ...and when they told me a few days later your son is one of us now and there are no medical bills for him...I thought you don't know what you have done for me...my peace of mind...my ability to get through this...my ability to concentrate on my son to get well and go home. Secondly and as someone who represents doctors and hospitals in malpractice lawsuits...we need to sue the HMOs and our Health Plans RATHER than our doctors and hospitals. It is not the doctors who prevent treatments or hospitals...it is the health plans that treat it like a business and make us follow their rules. If they could be touched or sued THAT WOULD CHANGE. I know...I know a lawyer wanting more lawsuits but no I really know the good it can provide...look at products liabiliy...we have safe products ONLY and I MEAN ONLY because the manufacturers of that item can be sued. Ford didn't fix the Pinto because they thought it was the RIGHT thing to do. The quality of our products I know is the best in the world partially because of that fact. Insurance is not a luxury for any of us. I have heard about Mitt Romney as he makes his bid for the Republican nomination in 2008...has made his selling point....his universal health care plan in Massachhutsertts. It may be worthless who knows or so expensive it doesn't work. I certainly hope someone's plan works because the status quo is not o.k. with me. We cannot deny access to something like Health insurance...as the saying goess...if you don't have your health you have nothing. I want to get rid of the word UNINSURABLE in regards to health insurance.
3 comments:
Well, this is a big topic. I'm a malpractice defense lawyer, too. so, I'm sure you know that malpractice litigation, and the unecessarily duplicitive medicine practiced to attempt to avoid it, is a HUGE part of the cost of health care. But you can't just free doctors of the fear of malpractice suits, for the same reason that, as you note, you can't free manufacturers of the fear of products liability suits. There's gotta be a better way, but I confess I don't know what it is.
Well, I'm not a malpractice defense attorney, but I'll offer my opinion anyway. I think the problem with health insurance is health insurance.
Certainly food is more important than health care. Suppose apple farmers wanted to better their lot in life, so they decided to charge $100 per apple. In a free market society, people would simply stop buying apples and the apple farmers would either lower their prices or go out of business.
But we don't live in a free market society. The politicians always have their nose in our business. Some politican would step in and devise apple insurance. After all, apples are as American as.....apple pie, and an apple a day keeps the doctor away. So, let's have apple insurance so people can pay outrageous prices for apples. As a result, the apple farmers stay in business and continue to charge high prices.
How does cancer compare with apples? It doesn't. But the sniffles do, a rash does, cholic does. We are spending billions on health care for things that doctors can't treat any better than regular people can.
If we were to stop paying whatever doctors demand, they would stop demanding it.
What we need is sickness insurance. This would pay for one annual checkup, lengthy hospital stays, lifesaving surgery and disability. People would be discouraged from going to a hospital every time they felt a little uncomfortable because they'd have to pay the freight themselves.
I had an unusual childhood. I grew up in a little house on the prairie, with no plumbing. The one time in my youth that I saw the inside of a hospital is when I was 13 and had my appendix taken out. I also remember one housecall by a doctor when I came down with something bad (don't know what) that surfaced when I passed out and spent the next three days in bed with a fever. My parents didn't have health insurance. I don't know where the money came from, but I expect our doctor didn't live in a mansion. And when Santa came to our house, he'd bring sacks of groceries. Communities worked together. In those days it really DID take a village to raise a child. I'm alive. I'm here. And I wouldn't trade my childhood for anything.
The first step in reforming our health system will be to reform trial lawyers. Lotsa luck with that, since they run the country.
Awesome!
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