We haven't heard much about Family Values lately, so why not open that can of worms for a moment?
For millions of American families, the problem comes down to
something akin to who lives and who dies. But in this case it's who gets insurance and who goes without.
I read this stuff and I think, this can't be for real. If you presented facts like these as a trash novel to a publisher, they'd throw the manuscript in the reject heap. They'd tell you the situation defies credulity. They'd say, it's not believable.
But it is. This is America in 2007. Isn't it time we joined the civilized world? Isn't it time we drive a stake through the heart of the Murder by Spreadsheet for-profit insurance industry? Isn't it time that we demand that executives of the for-profit insurance industry be called to testify under oath before Congress? Isn't it time for the American people to hear insurance company CEOs (think criminals like Dennis Koslinski, Kenny Boy Lay) reveal the corruption and criminal activity that is the lifeblood of their murderous industry?
Indeed, this is our shameful reality in America, the richest country on the planet. Since healthcare is not a right of citizenship, familes are forced to make grotesque decisions based on their personal financial reality. It comes down to if you have money and can pay, then you can buy insurance provided you're healthy and won't make any claims.
Uninsured having to make tough choices
With just one income, the Wood family has enough money to buy medical insurance for either Jami Wood or her 8-month-old son, Evan. Wood and husband Christopher, who has government insurance as a veteran, said it wasn't hard to choose. Evan would get the insurance.
"The baby had to have insurance," said the 27-year-old mother who quit working after their son was born.Through www.ehealthinsurance.com, the family bought a policy for $76 a month from Aetna. (It has since increased to $92 a month.) It has a $2,000 deductible and $25 co-pay but covers Evan's routine checkups and immunizations.
"They wanted almost $200 more a month for me, and we couldn't afford that with an $1,100 house note," she said.
Are any of you surprised in Texas, Ground Zero of Family Values, Culture of Life and Mr. Compassionate Conservative, these are the family value choices American citizens are forced to make?
Mr. Bush, the worst president ever, is also responsible for the meltdown of employer provided insurance. Premiums for employer-sponsored plans have risen 87 percent since 2000, according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based health policy group.
Since 2000, employment-based health insurance premiums have increased 87 percent, compared to cumulative inflation of 18 percent and cumulative wage growth of 20 percent during the same period (3).
There is a tremendous volume of terrible news when it comes to employer-provided health insurance. This was once the bedrock of medical coverage in the United States, but is becoming increasingly rare. It is estimated that by 2010 only half of adult workers will be covered by job-related insurance. At that point, most Americans will have to find insurance on their own or go without. Already there are more than 47 million uninsured Americans, 7 million in California alone, and the number grows more deadly with each passing month.
Back to Texas for a moment. In the great state of Texas, healthcare is for the rich and healthy. So I suppose one way families make such awful decisions, is they may forgo insurance for the unhealthy among them, since pre-existing conditions aren't covered to begin with. Why burn money?
"In Texas, you are not guaranteed access," said Mila Kofman, associate research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. "If you are diabetic and lucky enough to get insurance at all, most companies will exclude the diabetes. Then what's the point of the insurance if your illness isn't covered?"
So much for Bush family values.
But this tragic reality--that families must chose who gets insured and who doesn't--appears to be a phenomenon which is burrowing deep into the fabric of our society. Health insurance has become a luxury benefit even to those of you who work for large companies. Many Americans are now being offered health insurance from their employers, but this coverage now includes a new twist, what is called a "spousal exemption".
Seeking to save money on rising health insurance premiums, a growing number of Pennsylvania companies are squeezing out spouses who have access to insurance of their own.
The concept, known as a spousal exclusion, is viewed as a way for companies to rein in costs without directly costing their employees more money.
Under one version of a spousal exclusion policy, a wife wouldn't be able to get coverage on her husband's insurance plan if she were eligible for insurance through a job of her own. Another variation might allow a working husband to join his wife's employer's plan, but charge him a fee to do so.
A survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting released last year reported that 14 percent of Pennsylvania employers said they used a spousal exclusion provision, compared with 8 percent nationally. Additionally, 8 percent of Pennsylvania employers said they planned to add a spousal exclusion provision, vs. 5 percent nationally.
Clearly our system of employer-financed insurance cannot meet the ever-worsening crisis. Premiums and costs are higher than ever while coverage has become a loophole filled gauntlet of list of everything that's excluded.
The healthcare crisis is so horrendous that it is causing untold hardship to almost all but the wealthiest Americans. A new study has revealed that people who must take cholesterol lowering medication, stop taking it when they are forced to make unaffordable copayments.
TUESDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) -- Many patients taking statins to lower their cholesterol stop taking the drugs because of co-payments and shared drug costs, a new study found.
These drugs, which have been shown to prevent heart attacks, should be fully covered by insurance, said study lead researcher Dr. Sebastian Schneeweiss, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School.
"There are a bunch of conditions, like high cholesterol, where patients should be totally exempted from any cost-sharing just in order for them to take the medication," Schneeweiss said. "The patient's health will be better, but it also makes economic sense for the insurance plan -- if the plan is thinking not just about the pharmacy cost but the overall costs. The cost to insurance companies to treat a heart attack is far more than the cost to prevent one."
Schneeweiss thinks that because statins are a preventive drug, they may be easy for someone to discontinue when cost becomes an issue.
And just to round out this nauseating trip through our depraved and crippled healthcare system, here's the final word on the political farce and giveaway to the for-profit insurance industry that is going on in Massachusetts.
In Massachusetts, the pioneer of the state-mandated plans, a 56-year-old making $30,000 annually will have to spend $7,164 in premium and deductible payments before insurance kicks in and still pony up 20 percent of hospital costs after that, according to Physicians for A National Health Program, or PNHP.
Such coverage is health insurance in name only. It leaves patients unable to access care and subject to financial ruin. PNHP studies show that more than a quarter of insured Americans go without needed care because of cost, and 75 percent of those bankrupted by medical bills had coverage when they got sick.
Forcing or enticing Americans to buy stripped-down health insurance may decrease the number labeled "uninsured," but it won’t protect the physical or financial health of beleaguered families. And as costs continue to rise, employers will push more middle-class families from comprehensive plans into ones with scaled-down benefits and higher deductibles.
So sorry to be the bearer of such continually grim news.
Repeat after me, forcing Americans to buy JUNK INSURANCE, does nothing at all, except allow politicans to claim they've solved the healthcare crisis. This is a total fabrication.
__________________________
