If you are healthy and have no dependents I'd urge you to do the same. My kids are raised and are not dependent on me. I'll wait for the public option. If Congress won't give us a public plan, I'll have to go crawling back to the private insurers. But if enough of us can just go four or five months without insurance, our cancellations in the coming weeks could create a movement.
For years I've been paying premiums to my private insurer, Oxford, that are used to buy Congress, block reform, and exploit all of us. My premiums have subsidized a system in which all of us, including the insured, are potentially uninsured because we become ill, or have our coverage rescinded by our insurers in bad faith, or because we hit our coverage cap.
My premium has helped perpetuate misery and "death by spreadsheet." It has paid the outrageous salaries of healthcare executives who are so brazen that they tell Congress, without fear of legislative retribution, that they will continue to rescind coverage for people who have had the misfortune to become ill. My premium has subsidized their bad faith denials of coverage and their exploitation of my fellow man. No more.
I called Oxford at 9:00 AM and cancelled my policy, which will terminate at the end of the current billing cycle (in about two weeks). The Oxford representative I spoke to asked why I was canceling and I told her. I then called Sen. Dodd and Rep. Jim Himes to inform them of my action (I didn't bother calling Lieberman's office).
I WILL GO UNINSURED UNTIL A PUBLIC OPTION IS ADOPTED OR REJECTED BY CONGRESS. IF ADOPTED, I WILL OPT FOR THE PUBLIC PLAN. IF REJECTED, I WILL RELUCTANTLY RETURN TO PRIVATE COVERAGE. I AM HOPING THAT MASS CANCELLATIONS IN THE NEXT TWO MONTHS WILL GET MEDIA ATTENTION AND INFLUENCE THE DEBATE IN CONGRESS.
I'm sure there are many who will call me foolish, naive, reckless or worse. Perhaps so, but I've thought it over and calculated the risk. The risk is primarily financial, and the maximum exposure equals approximately the product of my net worth and the likelihood that I'll become ill while I'm uninsured. The actuarial risk of my becoming ill is of course rather imprecise, but my best estimate is that going uninsured for four months (i.e., the estimated duration of the debate in Congress) has a discounted, risk-adjusted cost of approximately $1,000 to $3,000 dollars. The risk is that I develop a catastrophic illness, which for this purpose I've assumed to result in $1 million in medical expenses. The risk of this happening over the next four months, given that I'm currently healthy and have no adverse medical history, is between one-tenth of 1% and three-tenths of 1% (if anyone has different actuarial calculations, I'd appreciate hearing them).
Maybe this is a futile protest; it probably is. But if others followed suit, if other healthy people without dependents are willing to cancel their policies and let the insurers and Congress know why, then we'll start getting some traction. The loss of my premium may not scare them, and the loss of a thousand policies may not scare them, but the potential that a growing movement of private health insurance Refuseniks may focus the media on this issue will scare the hell out of them. The media, as obtuse and somnolent as they are, could not ignore thousands of people canceling their policies and going uninsured in order to protest our corrupt private insurance system.
No one should be under the illusion that we can make the private insurance industry capitulate. A public option will ultimately knock them out of the game altogether, costing them tens of billions in profits. They will never acquiesce to this, they will never compromise, they will never negotiate in good faith. This is about shaming Congress. This is about focusing public outrage at Senators who deny us our right to healthcare because they've been corrupted by the rivers of bloodmoney flowing from Big Healthcare, Big Insurance and Big Pharma. This is about demonstrating the depth of our commitment, because we can't compete on the basis of money, and our phone calls and e-mails to Congress are merely tolerated and then ignored.
I am not a reckless person. To the contrary, I'm quite risk averse. And I wouldn't do this if it were just about this current healthcare reform battle. But there's much more at stake than just healthcare reform. As important as healthcare reform is, the real issue here is whether we have a meaningful democracy or a sham democracy. If fully 76% of the public can favor a public option and be ignored by a Congress indentured to private healthcare and insurance interests, then we may as well be ruled by the Mullahs.
Like many of you, I was pretty shook up about how we were misled into war with Iraq. The country was duped, and rather easily duped by transparent lies and fearmongering. That's a risk that will always be present in our system, strive as we might to limit that risk. Far more frightening, at least from my perspective, is that the will of the overwhelming majority of the American people could be defied by Congress. Far more distressing is the idea that Congress could tell 76% of us to go fuck ourselves while they gorge themselves on contributions from Big Healthcare.
I'm prepared to see this diary sink into oblivion, barely noticed and maybe even ridiculed. That's OK. I'd love to see others follow suit and cancel their policies, but even if no one does I'll still feel good about this. It's the first time I'll have ever subjected myself to any kind of risk for political reasons, and in the scheme of things it's a small risk. It's not taking to the streets of Tehran and facing fire. It doesn't have the grandeur or nobility of a Ghandi or Mandela standing up for freedom and basic human rights. It's a very small thing for a coddled baby-boomer to do when you think about it. I'm going naked - without health insurance - for four or five months in support of a principle: healthcare is a right, and it's a scandal that our country, uniquely among our peers in the developed world, denies this right.
I'm not even really uninsured yet, and won't be for two weeks. But it already feels good. Sure, Oxford will continue rescinding its coverage of people who have become ill after paying premiums to Oxford for years. They'll continue bad faith denials of coverage to their policyholders. They'll continue to elevate their profits over your health and life. They'll continue to buy small men like Baucus. But they won't be doing it with my money, at least for the next four or five months. And if we win this battle in Congress for a public option, they will NEVER get another dollar of mine for their disgusting protection racket.
UPDATE: I apparently wasn't very clear as to why I assumed a four or five month period of uninsurance. I'm assuming the debate in Congress will last another four or five months, at the outside. At that point, we'll either have adopted or rejected a public option. If we adopt the public option, I'll either wait until it's available or purchase stopgap insurance in the interim. If it is not adopted, I'll have to get a new insurance policy.
UPDATE II: There are a lot of people telling me I'm nuts (as I expected), and a lot of people offering support. Thanks to those of you offering support. To those of you telling me I'm nuts, thanks to you, too, because you seem concerned about my welfare. But before there was a labor union in this country there was some worker - just one, the first - who had to stand up and risk his job and his health, and even his life. Someone had to be so disgusted at the injustice, the indignity, and the corruption, that they went it alone and hoped others would follow.
LAST UPDATE: To all those of you who say the risk, even if only for four months, is too great, consider that about 50 million people in this country are already uninsured and bear this risk every day - and most of those really don't have any choice in the matter. Please remember that. And remember that even the insured among you are also potentially uninsured, and it is a certainty that many of you will be uninsured because you've hit coverage caps, or are denied coverage by the insurance companies for procedures recommended by your doctor, or because you lose your job, or for any other number of reasons.
If we can take the risk for a few months, I firmly believe we can eliminate this risk entirely in this country forever.
It's gotta start somewhere.