Save our family, save yourself some bucks

Posted on July 22, 2009 in Insurance

We have good insurance, provided by Lynn’s job. She pays extra so that I am covered. If it were not for this, we’d be paying thousands of dollars for my medications that protect me from the effects of my various medical conditions which include bipolar disorder, diabetes, asthma, gout, and coronary heart disease ((This was detected early through preventative medical procedures. I haven’t even needed a stent.)) .

I suppose in some reactionary’s Spencerian thinking, I should be culled when society’s interest in keeping Lynn employed diminishes. To the private concerns that keep our country moving, I’m little more than her pet, a non-producer.

But then society has other concerns. “Take your meds” it says to me, the bipolar. My meds are very expensive, thank you, and I do take them even though we pay hundreds of dollars in co-pays to keep me on them. If I were to stop and do something illegal because my insurance ran out, no judge or jury in this country would have pity on me. “You elected to stop taking your meds,” I would be told. There would be no winning except for the fact that in jail they would put me back on medication. You will get to pay for that.

For personal reasons, I have elected to stay off of the public dole. I do not take SSDI because I consider my wife and I to be fortunate. The money that we save the government can be used to help another person in more needy circumstances. Or make your burden less. Yet every day I worry that Lynn will lose her job and we will be left without insurance to keep me on my medications. It’s a valid fear.

The point I wish to make is that our family could be yours. How close are you to finding yourself without coverage and needing it badly? Would sickness of you or your spouse or one of your children put you in a vulnerable position? We are lucky not to be bankrupted by my medical conditions, but cancer could strike your family. Heroic measures could lock you in the thrall of a bank for the rest of your life. Your dreams of owning your own business, enjoying retirement, etc. could be erased that quickly.

It says a lot that every major nation in this world has created a health care system that is unlike ours. Germany, which has the best health care system in the world by all measures does use private insurance, but insurance companies must be NONPROFIT which makes coverage cheaper. It is only here in the United States that health care is seen as a business rather than a service. And greedy businessmen fatten themselves to the tune of millions of dollars. Nowhere else does a high school graduate decide whether you can have the MRI your doctor ordered or not. The money that pays these unneccesary cogs in the machine could be used to help you meet the costs of fighting your cancer or other delibating disorder.

We have come to a critical hour: we can change the world. Private health insurance concerns are fighting the public option for this reason and this reason alone: it will require that they must use the capital which we invest in them to cover our medical needs. They can still function for profit, but they will have to compete with the public option and with each other.

The same forces that forced George W. Bush on us and slathered in his trough want the idea stopped. That should be reason to change our minds. Think of me, then call your representative and Senator, especially if your senator is a centrist Democrat. We cannot afford to have bad health care. I don’t want to be a burden on society should Lynn lose her job. You shouldn’t have to pay for the costs that will accrue if my conditions are allowed to degenerate into their worst possibilities. Help us to be able to pay our way no matter how Lynn is employed.