[healthcare] As posted to Facebook
As posted in a comment to a discussion about the upcoming health care "reform". Not going to trim or snip what I wrote, because it's complete. For those who will benefit from this new law, I rejoice for them. Not being sarcastic - whomsoever this law helps, that's a damned good thing.
Me, it's looking to screw completely. One word in this damned law - "insurance" - looks to be doing me out of my coverage and ensuring that my multiple sclerosis goes untreated after the first of January, 2014.
1. I live in San Francisco. We have a wonderful program, essentially single payer, called Healthy San Francisco:
http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org/
2. I have multiple sclerosis. No idea what the new med for this would cost out of pocket, but the retail cost of the med I used for ten years until my body started reacting badly to it, was close to $4K a month. If my Kaiser hadn't had a drug cost cap on it (see #3, below), it would have cost me $2K a month.
3. Under HSF, I have full Kaiser coverage, no deductibles (it's an HMO coverage, not a PPO). Cap on my drug costs, under this program, is $15 a month for a non-generic drug.
4. Under the new healthcare act, HSF may have to shut down. Because under this goddamned miserable "let's pass it now, it's full of holes but we can fix it later" bill that NO ONE ON EITHER SIDE BOTHERED TO READ (and yes, I did, when it was still Teddy Kennedy's draft; I even posted a live read and query on Facebook), HSF doesn't qualify as "insurance".
No, I am not projecting or being paranoid. I called HSF and they confirmed. We don't know if I - and many thousands of other people currently covered by HSF - will have coverage after 1 January 2014. Because, see, Obama and congress made damned sure that the poor starving health insurance industry wouldn't suffer by passing HCR.
So, to recap. I have single payer City coverage, but coverage isn't insurance and the law demands that I buy "insurance". My monthly coverage, which is now at a flat $20 a month, can, under Obamacare, jump to fifteen times that for me, and that much again for my husband. It would mean switching to a private Kaiser plan, and under Obamacare there is no cap on what they can charge for my meds.
And the American electorate - which by and large is too bloody stupid to read a bill, and goes for the Shiny! Ooooh! soundbite instead - can kiss every inch of my multiple sclerosis-infected girly arse. So can boody Obama and both parties in that wretched excuse for a legislative branch of our government.
Clear enough, hopefully. And I just ordered myself a wheelchair, getting ready for what looks to be the inevitable: the inability to afford my meds when this law takes full effect.
We having fun yet?
Me, it's looking to screw completely. One word in this damned law - "insurance" - looks to be doing me out of my coverage and ensuring that my multiple sclerosis goes untreated after the first of January, 2014.
1. I live in San Francisco. We have a wonderful program, essentially single payer, called Healthy San Francisco:
http://www.healthysanfrancisco.org/
2. I have multiple sclerosis. No idea what the new med for this would cost out of pocket, but the retail cost of the med I used for ten years until my body started reacting badly to it, was close to $4K a month. If my Kaiser hadn't had a drug cost cap on it (see #3, below), it would have cost me $2K a month.
3. Under HSF, I have full Kaiser coverage, no deductibles (it's an HMO coverage, not a PPO). Cap on my drug costs, under this program, is $15 a month for a non-generic drug.
4. Under the new healthcare act, HSF may have to shut down. Because under this goddamned miserable "let's pass it now, it's full of holes but we can fix it later" bill that NO ONE ON EITHER SIDE BOTHERED TO READ (and yes, I did, when it was still Teddy Kennedy's draft; I even posted a live read and query on Facebook), HSF doesn't qualify as "insurance".
No, I am not projecting or being paranoid. I called HSF and they confirmed. We don't know if I - and many thousands of other people currently covered by HSF - will have coverage after 1 January 2014. Because, see, Obama and congress made damned sure that the poor starving health insurance industry wouldn't suffer by passing HCR.
So, to recap. I have single payer City coverage, but coverage isn't insurance and the law demands that I buy "insurance". My monthly coverage, which is now at a flat $20 a month, can, under Obamacare, jump to fifteen times that for me, and that much again for my husband. It would mean switching to a private Kaiser plan, and under Obamacare there is no cap on what they can charge for my meds.
And the American electorate - which by and large is too bloody stupid to read a bill, and goes for the Shiny! Ooooh! soundbite instead - can kiss every inch of my multiple sclerosis-infected girly arse. So can boody Obama and both parties in that wretched excuse for a legislative branch of our government.
Clear enough, hopefully. And I just ordered myself a wheelchair, getting ready for what looks to be the inevitable: the inability to afford my meds when this law takes full effect.
We having fun yet?