Broke & Crazy in Erie, PA- or, Why I’m So Adamant About Having a Public Option
I have a theory on the health care debate. My theory is this- if you are not in favor of a public option in health care, then you have never needed health care. Because anyone who’s had to deal with an insurance company for any kind of serious health issue can tell you, it is a fight to get anything covered. I know- I’ve been through it. I have had to fight insurance companies to get my yearly exams covered, to get them to cover treatment for the degenerative joint disease in my jaw, & I’m currently fighting them to get them to pay for the treatment on my knee that they’re trying to find a way out of. (Seriously. They just sent me a letter that basically said, “Are you sure this wasn’t at work? Or from a car accident?”, as if there’s no such thing as icy steps at home in March in Erie. This is how many months after I fell & they don’t even have to pay for much since all I needed was a few weeks of PT & no surgery.) And this is with multiple insurance companies through multiple places- jobs ranging from retail to degree-required professional positions & insurance I got through school when I was a student so, no, we’re not talking about an isolated incident with one crappy company.
Here’s the sad truth about health insurance-- for all those years that you put money in, they’re happy to take it. However, once you actually need it, they will do everything they can to keep from paying anything out. Including dropping you completely.
In a way, I’m lucky that my biggest health crisis hit when I was completely uninsured. I’m lucky that it was a mental illness & I’m in the state of Pennsylvania. Why is that lucky? Because Pennsylvania actually has a decent public health safety net for people with mental illnesses- so much so that Andrew Solomon devotes a chapter of The Noonday Demon talking about how amazing it is (& prior to reading that book, I had no idea how progressive & unusual PA’s system is). Because of Pennsylvania’s safety net, I got to stay in school when my brain melted six years ago instead of spending a few quality weeks living my worst nightmare, which is to say, locked up in a psych ward. Some of the doctors I saw were a bit iffy- but not anywhere near as bad as some of the doctors I saw for other issues as an insured person. The ones I ended up with I liked so much that I opted to keep seeing them once I got insurance again. I’m still seeing them now.
OF course, now I’m in a very weird place. See, I’m now unemployed & I’m losing my health insurance. I had figured that since my illness makes me eligible for Medicaid, I’d be OK. Except that it turns out that I’m getting about $50 too much in my unemployment so I’m over the income limit. I might be able to qualify for another program, though, but that’s going to be some hoops to jump through. Meanwhile, I have to hope that my unemployment isn’t high enough to disqualify me from the patient assistance programs I need for my medications. See, *with* insurance, I was paying over $100 a month for meds. Without insurance, it’s at least $400, which is to say, close to half of my monthly UC. Youch. Going off them is *not* an option I want to contemplate- Bonkerville is not a place I’m keen to visit again, let alone reside.
(And for those wondering about COBRA- it doesn’t apply to businesses with less than 20 employees.)
And here comes the kicker- because of my illness & because I have a family history of heart disease & skin cancer, there’s just about no way in hell I’ll ever be able to afford private health insurance, if I could find a company even willing to discuss it with me.
All of which means that one of the things I want to do most in life- have my own studio & make a living selling my work- is next to impossible for me to accomplish on my own. That’s why I want to smack people every time I hear someone claim that having a public option would be bad for small businesses. It would be *great* for small businesses! For one thing, more people could start them without having to worry about not being able to get insurance. For another, people don’t realize just how large a percentage of payroll in a small business goes towards paying premiums on health insurance- premiums that increase by leaps & bounds every year & which business have little choice but to pay-or decrease or even drop coverage? I was at a community planning meeting last month. We talked about how to promote art-related businesses & the number one roadblock to artists opening studios & other businesses of their own was access to health care.
I keep hearing people say they don’t trust the government to run health care. Well, I’d rather trust a bunch of social workers & civil servants than a bunch of greedy corporate CEOs. Think about it- corporate greed has already killed your 401k & private pension funds. What makes you think they aren’t killing your health care? Where do you think they’re getting the money they’re pouring into their efforts to kill health care reform in general & the public option in particular? They are using the money you’re paying to them for your premiums to buy off politicians & spread lies & misinformation about the health care bill so that you keep paying way-too-much-money for not-nearly-enough-actual-care. Why? Because they make more money that way.
Here’s the thing- the government already runs healthcare. It’s called Medicare & you will not find a group of people happier with their coverage than people on Medicare (unless it’s members of Congress, who also have a very nice government-run health plan).I worked with seniors for 5 years & health issues were always the number one topic of conversation, so I’ve heard a lot about what they think about their care. They go to their doctors, the doctor decides what they need for treatment & it gets done. The only thing that I’ve heard complaints about is Part D- the prescription coverage that Bush pushed through that allowed the drug companies to charge insane amounts for their drugs & the difference between what Medicare will pay & that cost is passed on to the seniors. Government by itself does just fine with health care- it’s when government sells out to corporate interests over the interests of the people that we get problems.
But that’s the best part about this plan- you get to *choose*. If you’ve got insurance & you like it, you get to keep it. No one is trying to take away the health care you already have, despite what those windbags on Fox are saying. They have proposed a public option, which means that those of us who don’t have health care & can’t get it, now we can have it, too. OR if the insurance you have at your workplace is really crappy, you can get something better. Because a lot of us don’t have another option- jobs are scarce, more & more employers aren’t offering health insurance because they can’t afford to & the ones that do, half their employees can’t afford the premiums. More & more businesses are laying people off. All those people without health insurance? It’s because they can’t get it or can’t afford it- not because they don’t want it. That’s why so many are without. I don’t have an option to do without anymore- not if I want to remain a productive & engaged person.
So, here’s the point I really want to drive home here, oh people of my friends list- by saying you don’t want a public option, you are telling *me* that I do not deserve health care. You are telling *me* that you’re OK with me getting shuffled off to some institution when I can’t get the medication I need to stay healthy. You are telling *me* that you don't care about me-and all your other unemployed friends- staying healthy so we’re able to work when we can find jobs again. And yeah, I kinda have a problem with that. Because this isn't just a semantic debate here- this is my life. I want to live it.
Here’s the sad truth about health insurance-- for all those years that you put money in, they’re happy to take it. However, once you actually need it, they will do everything they can to keep from paying anything out. Including dropping you completely.
In a way, I’m lucky that my biggest health crisis hit when I was completely uninsured. I’m lucky that it was a mental illness & I’m in the state of Pennsylvania. Why is that lucky? Because Pennsylvania actually has a decent public health safety net for people with mental illnesses- so much so that Andrew Solomon devotes a chapter of The Noonday Demon talking about how amazing it is (& prior to reading that book, I had no idea how progressive & unusual PA’s system is). Because of Pennsylvania’s safety net, I got to stay in school when my brain melted six years ago instead of spending a few quality weeks living my worst nightmare, which is to say, locked up in a psych ward. Some of the doctors I saw were a bit iffy- but not anywhere near as bad as some of the doctors I saw for other issues as an insured person. The ones I ended up with I liked so much that I opted to keep seeing them once I got insurance again. I’m still seeing them now.
OF course, now I’m in a very weird place. See, I’m now unemployed & I’m losing my health insurance. I had figured that since my illness makes me eligible for Medicaid, I’d be OK. Except that it turns out that I’m getting about $50 too much in my unemployment so I’m over the income limit. I might be able to qualify for another program, though, but that’s going to be some hoops to jump through. Meanwhile, I have to hope that my unemployment isn’t high enough to disqualify me from the patient assistance programs I need for my medications. See, *with* insurance, I was paying over $100 a month for meds. Without insurance, it’s at least $400, which is to say, close to half of my monthly UC. Youch. Going off them is *not* an option I want to contemplate- Bonkerville is not a place I’m keen to visit again, let alone reside.
(And for those wondering about COBRA- it doesn’t apply to businesses with less than 20 employees.)
And here comes the kicker- because of my illness & because I have a family history of heart disease & skin cancer, there’s just about no way in hell I’ll ever be able to afford private health insurance, if I could find a company even willing to discuss it with me.
All of which means that one of the things I want to do most in life- have my own studio & make a living selling my work- is next to impossible for me to accomplish on my own. That’s why I want to smack people every time I hear someone claim that having a public option would be bad for small businesses. It would be *great* for small businesses! For one thing, more people could start them without having to worry about not being able to get insurance. For another, people don’t realize just how large a percentage of payroll in a small business goes towards paying premiums on health insurance- premiums that increase by leaps & bounds every year & which business have little choice but to pay-or decrease or even drop coverage? I was at a community planning meeting last month. We talked about how to promote art-related businesses & the number one roadblock to artists opening studios & other businesses of their own was access to health care.
I keep hearing people say they don’t trust the government to run health care. Well, I’d rather trust a bunch of social workers & civil servants than a bunch of greedy corporate CEOs. Think about it- corporate greed has already killed your 401k & private pension funds. What makes you think they aren’t killing your health care? Where do you think they’re getting the money they’re pouring into their efforts to kill health care reform in general & the public option in particular? They are using the money you’re paying to them for your premiums to buy off politicians & spread lies & misinformation about the health care bill so that you keep paying way-too-much-money for not-nearly-enough-actual-care. Why? Because they make more money that way.
Here’s the thing- the government already runs healthcare. It’s called Medicare & you will not find a group of people happier with their coverage than people on Medicare (unless it’s members of Congress, who also have a very nice government-run health plan).I worked with seniors for 5 years & health issues were always the number one topic of conversation, so I’ve heard a lot about what they think about their care. They go to their doctors, the doctor decides what they need for treatment & it gets done. The only thing that I’ve heard complaints about is Part D- the prescription coverage that Bush pushed through that allowed the drug companies to charge insane amounts for their drugs & the difference between what Medicare will pay & that cost is passed on to the seniors. Government by itself does just fine with health care- it’s when government sells out to corporate interests over the interests of the people that we get problems.
But that’s the best part about this plan- you get to *choose*. If you’ve got insurance & you like it, you get to keep it. No one is trying to take away the health care you already have, despite what those windbags on Fox are saying. They have proposed a public option, which means that those of us who don’t have health care & can’t get it, now we can have it, too. OR if the insurance you have at your workplace is really crappy, you can get something better. Because a lot of us don’t have another option- jobs are scarce, more & more employers aren’t offering health insurance because they can’t afford to & the ones that do, half their employees can’t afford the premiums. More & more businesses are laying people off. All those people without health insurance? It’s because they can’t get it or can’t afford it- not because they don’t want it. That’s why so many are without. I don’t have an option to do without anymore- not if I want to remain a productive & engaged person.
So, here’s the point I really want to drive home here, oh people of my friends list- by saying you don’t want a public option, you are telling *me* that I do not deserve health care. You are telling *me* that you’re OK with me getting shuffled off to some institution when I can’t get the medication I need to stay healthy. You are telling *me* that you don't care about me-and all your other unemployed friends- staying healthy so we’re able to work when we can find jobs again. And yeah, I kinda have a problem with that. Because this isn't just a semantic debate here- this is my life. I want to live it.