Today I was preparing to post an overview of Hillary Clinton’s health care plan when I came across this letter.
http://ihcrp.georgetown.edu/ahpfiles/victimjanicestatementfinal.pdf.
It’s about a woman’s experience with a health insurance company that turned out to be doing business illegally in Florida. That’s not the reason I’m suggesting you read the letter. The story is about what happens when you have or get a serious medical condition. There are multiple preexisting health conditions that can cause an insurance company to refuse you insurance or not cover any expenses related to your preexisting condition. I know that most people don’t have preexisting conditions so you may think this doesn’t apply to you. That’s wonderful but it’s not realistic. There's a good chance that cancer or diabetes will affect you or someone in your immediate family. That's what this story is about.
Let’s be Scrooge for a moment. You can remove yourself from the concern related to immediate family members. You can divorce a sick spouse or wait long enough and a child who gets sick will grow up. If you’re the one who gets sick, well, too bad. Scrooge may sound heartless but how is our treatment of people with preexisting conditions any different. There is a solution and that is to have group insurance available for everyone and the groups are large enough to spread the impact.
If a group has 10 insured costumers with no medical concerns and one with a preexisting condition, the costs are affordable for everyone. Of course those without any concerns will pay a little more but what kind of world do we want to live in. After reading the letter I hope you can appreciate the hopelessness so many feel. For some it’s a preexisting condition and for others it’s just good old poverty. Not all of us work for an employer who can afford our health insurance. Those days are becoming more unlikely every day. Tomorrow we’ll get to Hillary.
http://ihcrp.georgetown.edu/ahpfiles/victimjanicestatementfinal.pdf.
It’s about a woman’s experience with a health insurance company that turned out to be doing business illegally in Florida. That’s not the reason I’m suggesting you read the letter. The story is about what happens when you have or get a serious medical condition. There are multiple preexisting health conditions that can cause an insurance company to refuse you insurance or not cover any expenses related to your preexisting condition. I know that most people don’t have preexisting conditions so you may think this doesn’t apply to you. That’s wonderful but it’s not realistic. There's a good chance that cancer or diabetes will affect you or someone in your immediate family. That's what this story is about.
Let’s be Scrooge for a moment. You can remove yourself from the concern related to immediate family members. You can divorce a sick spouse or wait long enough and a child who gets sick will grow up. If you’re the one who gets sick, well, too bad. Scrooge may sound heartless but how is our treatment of people with preexisting conditions any different. There is a solution and that is to have group insurance available for everyone and the groups are large enough to spread the impact.
If a group has 10 insured costumers with no medical concerns and one with a preexisting condition, the costs are affordable for everyone. Of course those without any concerns will pay a little more but what kind of world do we want to live in. After reading the letter I hope you can appreciate the hopelessness so many feel. For some it’s a preexisting condition and for others it’s just good old poverty. Not all of us work for an employer who can afford our health insurance. Those days are becoming more unlikely every day. Tomorrow we’ll get to Hillary.
No comments:
Post a Comment