We as a country need healthcare reform. For me, it's personal. I pay out of pocket for my insurance premiums, and many of my neighbors here in Beaverton do the same through COBRA. Here are some of my thought regarding healthcare reform and debate. I also tell a small story about my experiences in the US and in France.
So, the past few weeks it has been healthcare reform debate. Actually, not so much of a debate as a reckoning: healthcare expenses will rise to be an unsustainable debt upon our country. By reforming how expenses are compensated, making premiums affordable, having an emphasis on preventive care and covering the majority of people in this country, healthcare can be a guaranteed resource in this country.
Of course, that's if you subscribe to reason, logic, order and ethics in your everyday life. For many of our house represetatives and Senators, they are fully for sale, not to be compared to prostitutes for they only sell their bodies. These representatives have sold their soul to stay in power. And for many people in this country, even though health care reform would benefit them, they are under the pathetic sway of heir own racism, fearing government even as they disproportionally benefit from it:
Military benefits, including VA healthcare
GI Bill for college
Federal subsidies for roads and bridges
EPA protection for air, soil and water
FDA protection for food and drugs
Local government funding police, fire services and parks
You get the picture. These are people are fine if they get benefits from the government; yet hate the idea that other people be they brown/black/yellow/white/purple/Klingons who also contributes services and taxes to this country. Of course, they gladly call themselves Christian.
Reason, logic, order and ethics- that's what is missing from the sturm und drang that this debate has generated.
Well, Edie, you may ask: How do you stand?
Again, for me, it's personal. I pay for my own health insurance- $250/month with a $4500 deductible and 85% coverage. No prescription benefit. No vision. No dental. Vision and dental I pay for myself, and because of a Costco membership, I am able to get decent glasses at a good price. But for my healthcare, I must pay for exams and tests myself. I use Zoomcare here in the Metro area, and it is cheaper to pay out of pocket than to submit paperwork to BCBS, even though it should count towards my deductible. So I am basically paying for all of my healthcare needs, and still paying premiums for medical emergency coverage, which would still leaves me close to $5000 in the hole for expenses if something was to happen to me and it costs more than $5000.
That's $3000/year I could be doing something else with. That was in the US.
When I traveled to France last year and worked for Unesco, I paid about $90/month through a private insurance company affiliated with BCBS here in the US. It's a nonprofit, it covers both French citizens and guest workers, and when I needed to go the the doctor (French cuisine did not sit well with me. Sacre bleu!) there was no nonsense about deductibles- the visits were paid and the medication paid- period.
(What happened? Well, the French diet in high in refined flours, sugar, processed fruits and veggies. There is a high emphasis on meat and meat products. What sounds lovely while reading Julia Child or reading Peter Mayles turns out to be sickening to a west coast girl. Teh doctor gave me a prescription for the so called trendy diet I was following here in Oregon- low gluten, mostly vegetarian)
I made 22,000 USD and 10,000 Euros last year in total. So I paid, after taxes, more than 1/6 of my income to insurance premuims in the US. Had I stayed in France (seriously, try looking for a good, solid 40 meter apartment without nonsense) it would have a merely 4.2% of my income- cheaper than the specialised diet that my doctor had put me on.
If we were to have real reform, which would either include a public option and/or coops, that could be cut in half, if not by two thirds. That's real money, for better healthcare and medical emergencies.