Turkana is so damn correct, how far we have plunged.
The so-called Cadillac tax is a terrible misnomer, certainly for the millions of Americans paying outrageous premiums for bare bones junk insurance. I'm one of those Americans. Now they want to tax this too?
So many of us, have quite literally been priced out of buying anything resembling good insurance, and we're paying a huge amount for very inadaquate junk insurance.
When it came time to renew my own insurance, I asked the insurance broker, what it would cost to buy good insurance in New York State. She said, "sit down". I held my breath in anticipation, she said, "$1300 a month."
So here we are. Unless someone wakes up and understands how Americans are trying to cope with this collapsed system, we could be paying a Cadillac tax for very expensive and very inadequate junk insurance.
In real terms, this is what may happen if this Cadillac tax isn't killed. And if it isn't killed, many Democrats will get slaughtered at the polls in 2010.
When it came time for me to renew my small group health insurance which was a barely adequate policy with a $500 deductible, the new premium came with a 32% price hike. If I wanted to keep my policy with the $500 deductible, I'd be paying $742.98 a month and if this so-called reform were the law, I'd get hit with the Cadillac Tax for what amounts to Chevrolet insurance. Mr. Obama, I was doing better, way better with, holy Jeebus, George Bush!
So, when I received my premium renewal, like millions of other Americans hit with huge price hikes, I downscaled. In order to maintain any insurance, I went deep into the land of high deductible junk insurance. I now have a $3000 deductible, I pay $500 per day (with a 3 day maximum) for any hospitalization, with no cap on this extra charge. So for example, if I am hospitalized four times in 2010 and each hospitalization is for four days, my portion for each hospitalization will be $1500 ($500 x 3 days) for all four stays! This would be a staggering additional $6000 per year out-of-pocket in addition to the monthly premium!
My office visit co-pay went from $20 to $40, and that's if I remain in the network. Ambulatory surgery co-pay which had been nothing goes to $500 for each event. All of these additional charges were the literal price I had to pay to maintain any insurance at all. And for this, I'm blessed to pay $560.00 a month, which brings me perilously close to paying the outrageous Cadillac tax which kicks in at $8500 dollars.
We should also be immensely troubled by the fact that most of these reforms won't be available for many years, yet Democrats will hit the ground during this election year, extolling the virtues of just a little more patience. How Obama runs on this in 2012 is beyond my ability to understand.
And if you care to face the truth, these so-called reforms, will not be at all affordable to the millions of Americans who won't benefit form the Medicaid expansion. Once again, the political class responsible for this legislation, doesn't have any idea that most Americans don't have an extra $200-$300 at the end of the month for health insurance. And then to add myriad co-pays and deductibles on top of that, oh well, good luck to the IRS trying to collect the fines from all these hard working people.
The drumbeat of anger toward the political system seems to be at a boiling point. I suppose we had unrealistically high hopes on November 2, 2008. But the restless unease goes much further than just healthcare. New Yorkers face a new bit of political lunacy. Harold Ford thinks he is an acceptable alternative to Kirsten Gillibrand.
Harold Ford is a metaphor for all that is wrong with our broken political system. We don't need the likes of Harold Ford, though he seems clueless to this reality. Ms. Gillibrand is just fine, she's what we've come to expect. She's another disquieting metaphor for our political system. I doubt she would have ever won a statewide election, she was appointed by a very unpopular and unelected governor, she's being propped up by Chuck Schumer because, we hear she represents no threat to him. We Americans seem to be satisfied with barely adequate people representing us. Harold Ford go away, please.
But if we really were to want to rattle the political class, we'd start to fund raise for Jonathan Tasini. Laying some bucks on him, might rattle a cage or two.
And here's the take home message on healthcare. I was with a group of doctors last weekend. To a person, they all said, this whole enterprise is bound to fail. What was most interesting is that this group of quite affluent doctors, none of whom were champions of single payer all knew and recognized that the only solution for our collapsed system is a single payer system. This is true.
What we're getting, is a transfer of wealth from the middle class to the private insurance industry. And for this, they will be required to "insure" us, though there will be all sorts of loopholes for them to weasel around. For Americans who make the Medicaid cut, it will be a good day, but for the rest of us, and those working poor who make just a bit too much to qualify for the Medicaid expansion, the reforms will be hard to fathom.
And in times like this, my thoughts always, without fail go to Dallasdoc's admonition for the last God knows how many years. Dallasdoc predicted this sort of outcome on healthcare. He said we wouldn't get any real reform until we demanded publically financed campaigns.
If even I'm angry, Democrats should be worried.