Fucked.

[jianantonic]

So, I lost my health insurance when I quit my job.  That was expected.  I applied for new health insurance (the same coverage through the same provider, even) right away.  I was told that since I'd already been covered by them for 2 years, it wouldn't be a problem.  I was quoted $95/month.  Doable.

Then something came in the mail, which Emily forwarded to me in Oregon (she's been checking my mail while I'm gone).  Because of my butt, which isn't even diagnosed yet, and at the doctor's best guess is only a cyst that requires a minor operation to remove, they won't insure me.  Or rather, they will, but it will be $541/month.  Which is barely less than my mortgage payment.

If I could AFFORD to pay $7000/year for health insurance, I wouldn't even bother with it, because I'd be able to pay cash for my doctors and surgeries and pills and all that.  

I am YOUNG.  I am HEALTHY (except for my butt, but hopefully it is just a cyst in which case yeah, I really am totally healthy).  I am rather financially sound, middle class.  BUT I CAN'T AFFORD HEALTH INSURANCE.  If I can't afford it, how many zillions of others, who have worse medical problems than I do, can't get the care they need?  

There is something terribly, terribly wrong with our healthcare system.  

So, yeah, I'm freaking out.  What if I can never afford the care I need to end this tailbone pain?  It may not even be a serious health condition but it is utterly debilitating.  I can barely sit anymore.  What if it never gets better?  What if it IS serious, but no one catches it because I can't afford to even consult a professional about it?  

What if I come up with the money to handle this problem, but then I still can't get health insurance -- then what?  What happens the next time I get hurt?

This is why health care is now my number one concern, ahead of ending the wars and improving civil rights for all Americans people.  Please, please, please -- vote Democrat in the 2008 elections.  Vote for the ones in particular who are pushing health care reform into the foreground.  

If our health care system can fuck over a healthy and financially secure person such as myself, it can do this to anyone.  Even if you HAVE insurance, do you know how easy it is for them to drop you, deny coverage, or jack up your rates if you get a bad diagnosis?  The more serious your health issues, the less likely you are to be covered.  What's the point anyway?

If it were the Republicans pushing for nationalized health and not the Democrats, and all other things were unchanged, this would be enough of an issue for me to vote (R).  (Luckily, the Republicans and I have NOTHING in common, except that we were both born into wealth, so I have no internal battles here.  It would be hard for me if one candidate embodied some of my priorities and the other party's candidate embraced the others and I had to choose -- but I would choose health care, because that affects EVERYONE.)  It's so scary to me what the future holds.  One day I will be old and REALLY need health care.  Then what?  Will I die slowly and painfully because I can't afford my meds?  Or afford care, so I just get to the point where I can't lift myself out of bed or to the bathroom or to fix a meal, and I just starve to death because I can't afford a nurse to help me with these things?  How many people are already going through this.  (Lots.  Too many.)

Anyway...I'm really scared.

Comments

[photomonk2.livejournal.com]

Amen! I haven't had health insurance for more than 7 years now. I am terrified that something will happen which will 1) put me in medical debt for, like, ever, and 2) make it impossible to get affordable coverage in the future. My mother, when she retired from her job of 41 years (at a hospital, no less), had to find coverage for the period between Cobra's ending and Medicare starting. I think her rate was between $6-700 or more. My aunt, who beat breast cancer, also has high premiums now.

How do we win? (and I won't even start on the worries of finding employment now in this apparently inevitable recession - though I am certainly seriously contemplating finding a way to make photography help fill the gap....)

[stillbigonbnl.livejournal.com]

I don't know what the correct answer is to this problem. I know that I don't think I'm a fan of universal care because the government can't efficiently do anything and do it well. I do know that one thing that chaps my ass is that so many people take their children and themselves to the HOSPITAL instead of their DOCTOR. I have friends who take their kids to the ER for EAR INFECTIONS!

It just makes everything else SUCK for those of us who don't abuse the coverage we do have.

So yeah, no solutions, just more gripes from me.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

THIS government can't handle it well. But governments all around the world are handling nationalized health care just fine, and everyone keeps saying the USA is the greatest nation EVER, so come on now.

The main advantage to nationalized health care is that it takes the corporations out of the mix. No health insurers deciding who does and doesn't get help. No pharma companies jacking up prices just because they can. The markups on some of these things are well into five-digit percentages, and if the government would just put a cap on that shit, it would be the death of the $500/month prescription.

It's not like I'm saying the government should take over the hospitals; I'm saying that the government should take over the costs (and the real costs are not nearly as high as all the corporations are getting away with charging).

[quandary87.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I'd be cautious about getting the government into the mix or anything that looks like a handout. Giving stuff to people who can't afford it is a bad idea. Now in your case, it looks like you ought to be able to afford it, its just that between the ridiculous markup and infernal inner workings of the system you get screwed.

Someone needs to truly look into health care to see if it really is that expensive, in which case, you're just SOL and all of us will be eventually, or if its just highway robbery.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

Someone HAS looked into this. Lots of people, actually, but most notably Michael Moore. There's a documentary.

But then there are the millions of others of us who look into it because we have to, because we are directly affected and struggling with it all the time. When I wrote financial news, I saw this every day. The markup is huge. Some procedures are expensive, but most medical expenses are the result of monopolies and giant markups.

I'm particularly amused that you are so opposed to "handouts." You've had every step of your very short adult life paid for by the government. You may think you worked hard to earn it, but think about it. You wouldn't have been on a publicity tour last year if just anyone could do what you could do. You wouldn't have been the first ever to graduate UVA in a year if it was something that ordinary people could do if they just put their minds to it. You were born gifted; lucky. And you get free stuff and ridiculously inflated salaries for your abilities. What value is it to be a bridge pro? But that money could float you for life, and what are you really doing to earn it? Sucking up to rich people. That is a handout, too.

Life is full of give and take, and no one is successful in life truly all on their own. Whether your handouts come from connections and networking, manipulation, trade, or goodwill, you benefit from handouts your whole life.

And I don't think it's too much to ask that the government do something about it when an admittedly pretty wealthy and healthy individual can't afford a trip to the doctor.

[jianantonic.livejournal.com]

Erg...that last bit sounds wrong. I don't mean to say the government should look after me because I'm wealthy. I'm saying that if EVEN a well off person can't afford to cover a basic need, then there's something truly fucked up and urgent.

[quandary87.livejournal.com]

Eh, the difference is that government handouts come from, well, the government, which effectively mints money (or takes on copious debt) to pay for it. It is the one institution that is absolutely unaccountable for where its money comes from, which is why I'm worried. And in all likelihood, eventually the debt comes back to slap the public in the face; I just don't want those 50, 60 and 70 y.o. politicians doing something again that will hit us all when they're dead and we're retiring.

I agree that the government SHOULD do something about it. And its a problem when wealthy people can't afford the health coverage, because that shows that health coverage is either too expensive for the wealthy (which is false, but would be troubling) or is mismanaged in some gross way (which is true and equally troubling). So we should set price caps, or even nationalize the health system, but again what worries me is that the government is unlikely to fix that, and more likely to please the bleeding hearts by passing more useless legislation like health care for low income children, resulting in more children going to doctors that couldn't otherwise afford it, and like some earlier poster saying, ER stays for people with ear infections, and higher prices all around.

But... all in all, I do agree that drastic and immediate action by the government in a constructive way (cutting the tape, the middle man and the ridiculous system that allows for extortion by HMOs and health care providers) is necessary.

[oobermeister.livejournal.com]

however, every other first world country ALREADY HAS govenment-paid healthcare (canada, japan, britain, france...). and the united states, i understand, is a very wealthy country, so there's no reason we can't do it here. indeed, we may incur a little debt, and we may have to raise taxes a little, and some people at the HMOs may lose their jobs, but i can't imagine that being worse than being very sick without any way to pay for your healthcare.

i think it all comes down to priorities, politics, and how pathetic we are for not having mandated healthcare a long time ago.

[flamingophoenix.livejournal.com]

That, and to stories about how everyone in Canada comes to the US whenever they want to see a specialist doctor. I don't know if the stories are true or not, but they sure do spread, because they jive with logic--if the salary for being a doctor is capped at X amount, then why go the extra mile to become a specialist?

Do any countries have "GPs make X, and specialists make X+Y" systems?

This is totally me talking out of my ass, if you hadn't figured that out already. I have no idea if any of this is true, but it's been said to me by intelligent people, so I give it SOME credence at least.

[oobermeister.livejournal.com]

we do have a lot more specialists here, and a much more diverse array of them. canada does have something like 1/10th the population of the US.

my understanding is that physicians in other first world countries that have government paid healthcare are just as well off as those in the US. i would assume that specialists are paid somewhat better.