Good column...I hope it makes people who want a public health care option think twice...

[onfrozenpond]

This column really hit home for me, because I am a father of a child (also the line about clutching a rosary also hits home for obvious reasons) and I hope I never have to go through the hell of having my child diagnosed with a possible cancer. If we had a public health care option, and God Forbid if something happened to Lily, would my little

Comments

[asaellam1]

Matt...there are no easy solutions to what is going in within the health care industry.
You and I have very different political beliefs...me being a liberal and you being a conservative but I think the one thing we can agree on is that something needs to be done.

I noticed at the beginning of your post that you questioned if something were to happen to Lily..God forbid...if she would be given the care she needs or be not judged worthy and made to die on a government run plan but do you trust that your current health care coverage would take care of everything that she would need??

Years ago when I lived in Oregon, a good friend of mine had a child that was diagnosed with cancer. This child went through hell with treatments and wasn't getting any better. After some time had passed, the health insurance company, (a very reputable on no less) had decided that they weren't going to cover this child's treatment anymore. I watched this family go through utter hell. Both husband and wife had state jobs, made fairly descent money, and thought they had good health care coverage.This family did absolutely anything and everything they could do to raise money for their child's treatments....picking up extra jobs, working overtime, fund raisers, refinancing their home, digging into college funds, and also had to deal with the pain of not being able to be there with their child as much as they wanted due to the extra jobs and overtime they were putting in. There were times when they took their child in for treatments only to be turned away due to not having the full payment for the treatment before hand. It was torture for them and for those of us that were close to them. After all of the pain and suffering this entire family went through, their daughter passed away.

There are so many people in this country that are living this type of nightmare. This isn't something that would happen only on government run health plans. These types of situations are happening every day with very reputable health insurance carriers and it needs to stop.

I think that anything and everything needs to be put out there as solutions before the government steps in and passes a public option. Believe me, I've had government health care with the Army and on medicaid and I know just how frustrating the system is. But as sad as this is to say, there are people out there that would rather have that then nothing.

You shouldn't have to die or watched a loved one die over a pre-existing condition or run the risk of being dropped from your plan is you get sick and need treatment for cancer. It's time now that the insurance companies start being held accountable for their heinous behavior.

[jadedshock]

Simply THIS.

[onfrozenpond]

I don't understand what you mean by "Simply this"...please expound.

[jadedshock]

It means I agree with what the above poster wrote. It's an internet thing.

[onfrozenpond]

I'm trying to spark a discussion here...why do you agree with her? Surely, you know that the health care plan in Congress supports abortion on demand....

[onfrozenpond]

Hope no offense was taken! I'm trying to spark discussion with ya and anyone else. Always be prepared to defend your answer, especially on a subject like this which I feel is a moral and a Christian issue, and it also could effect my family.

[onfrozenpond]

There are very simple solutions for this without going to a government plan:

1. Make a law saying no one can be dropped due to a pre existing condition.

2. Create a market place for insurance where you are not restricted by what state you live in.

3. End these multi-million dollar lawsuits by greedy lawyers that cause doctors to flee PA in droves. Tort reform!

And...if there ends up being a public option...the only alternative we will have is nothing, as people like my family would lose our existing coverage because Blue Cross would go out of business. Then, my little Lily, if she did have a horrible disease, would be in jeopardy.

This above is directed to Amy.

[asaellam1]

What happened to your new post. I tried to post something and then it wasn't there???

[onfrozenpond]

I killed it...I gave up in my argument. I just think we live in bizzaro world where we could sell our healthcare down the river to Karl Marx...it's a sad sad thing. Our country has gone to hell. We live in a sad world if people think we have to give our healthcare to bureaucrats who don't give a flying fuck about you or I instead of our own family doctors.

[asaellam1]

Ya know...not everything in life has a clear cut answer. I don't believe that giving people the OPTION to have an insurance plan run by the government is selling ourselves to Karl Marx. I honestly believe that the driving force behind it is to give people who can't afford rising health care premiums the opportunity to have some form of health care. No one is saying that everyone has to drop the current coverage and only have gov't health care and if I have missed something, please send me a link or something that says we all have to drop our current coverage and only have a gov't plan. I haven't really seen a lot of the major insurance companies be willing to compromise on what needs to be done either. So I think in that aspect we are going to have to agree to disagree. Truth be told, I think there are a lot of family doctors who don't give a shit about us either. The entire systems needs overhauled and to me that's the bottom line.

We didn't just wake up on Nov 5th and suddenly realize that our country has gone to hell.It's taken a long time to get where we are and yes...all political parties had a part of that, but it's going to take a long time to fix it. Not everybody is going to agree....that's life and we need to accept it.

I did have something to say about what you wrote about being a christian and supporting a gov't option though....

I don't feel that I am any less of a christian because I don't 100% disagree with the gov't plan. Just because you see a doctor who does abortions doesn't mean you are less of a christian or not a christian at all as opposed to someone who sees a doctor who doesn't do abortions. CHOOSING to not have the abortion in the first place is part of what makes a person a christian. I am not Catholic like you are and don't really understand a lot of the Catholic faith but in my faith, I don't look to the bible for all the clear cut answers. I look to the bible for teachings and scriptures to apply to my life and the decisions that I have to make. God gave us all free will...it's up to us if we choose to live in His word, no matter what religion we believe in.

One thing that I find fascinating about all of this is even though we are on opposite ends of the political spectrum, we still seem to agree on a lot of what needs to be done to fix this broken health care system. It just goes to show that no matter where you are in your political beliefs, there are still places to agree. I honestly hope after all this, is that there is true reform with in the health care system!!!!!