Health care and the care of your health. You'd think the two would go together like water and ice or ice and steam, but for some reason, there appears to be a difference between the two.
I have always had health insurance. I have moaned and bitched about the change in deductibles and the copays, but, at the end of the day, I pay the premium, the co pay, the deductible and see the doctor. Because I am blessed enough to do this, I have no "pre existing condition" to be an aggravation for me when I've changed jobs and need to change carriers. Its worked out nicely.
The clinic where my doctor practices was closed for about 3 months last year due to flooding. The computer files were lost and for a while there, noone in the joint was sure who owed them money and who didn't. I've been getting bills in the mail that I wouldn't normally receive because, naturally, everything is submitted to the insurance company. Ladies and gentlemen, health care, even the preventive maintenance, wellness stuff, ain't cheap. I make the necessary phone calls and resubmit claims and everything is ok now, but I couldn't imagine having to pay out of pocket for that stuff. I feel for people who have to.
I also feel for doctors. When I took my daughter in for her menigitis vaccination before heading off to college a couple of years ago, the doctor asked specifically... can she have this done at the infirmary? I asked why. He was plain.
That vaccination will cost the clinic $127 and the insurance company will
probably only pay $50 of it. We have to eat the rest. Its gotten to
the point where clinics and doctors are working for free while the patients are
padding the pockets of the insurance companies.
This is what the health insurance debate is about. People needing insurance, having insurance and paying insurance, yet, for some reason, the insurance companies aren't providing health care ASSURANCE.
Some say the problem lies in the deregulation of the insurance companies several years ago (gee, doesn't that sound familiar, can you say "bank deregulation"?) Some say its just general greed of hospitals and insurance companies. I say its a spiralling mess of both.
So, all the nice people screaming like banchees at town hall meetings are confused. They're functioning under a delusion created by health insurance lobbists who want to make sure that the "good thing" their clients have been living with all this time, doesn't fade to black.
And then there's this other notion of what's really going on. Remember 9/11? Remember how, after the dust had cleared, the insurance companies had to pay off claims and rates went up and everything?
Remember Katrina and Rita? Same thing there. Notice how in and attempt to "balance" things out, the banks started all of that adjustable mortgage rate stuff? Remember the bottom falling out of manufacturing and everyone packing up and moving to China? How many more dominos will fall before its all over?
Well... I believe everyone should have health insurance. Everyone should visit the doctor at least once a year. This will cut down on the number of pre existing conditions, which will reduce costs in health care which will... well you see how it works.
If folk would just stop screaming lik e banchees at town hall meetings....
but we'll discuss thatin part 2....
Labels: mah peoples..., politics as usual
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