Ganked from… well… all over.
I propose a US health care meme which might help put faces on how screwed up the current system is.
If you are a US citizen and could never under any circumstances afford private health insurance, copy this meme to your LJ, blog or website. Even if you have health care through work now, write as if your “one-layoff-away-from-losing-it” has happened and you’re facing the job of getting insurance on your own.
If you have friends or family members who are in the same boat, feel free to mention them too. I suggest thumbnail descriptions which include no names or identifying information, in the interests of privacy.
We currently get our health insurance through COBRA, because the Ex Mr. Honey and Ollie got laid off last February and his company stopped paying for it. Because of the Obama administration’s rules about layoffs, we are able to afford COBRA. They pay 65% of it. Our cost to insure our family of 4, with that assistance, is currently almost $400/mo. If it were not for the government subsidizing most of the cost, we would not have health insurance at all, because our out of pocket cost would be a little over $1300/mo. Seriously. That’s almost what I pay in rent.
My youngest child suffers from chronic and debilitating migraine headaches for which she takes a preventative medication daily. This medication costs, out of pocket, $158.00/mo. The pills she has to take when the migraines break through cost $22.00 each and sometimes she has to take several in a week. Neither of the medications that my daughter takes are available in generic.
My own medication which I take daily to treat chronic depression, is $273.19/mo. Fortunately, I can get this in generic which means I can get it for super cheap at Target or Walmart. I’m no big fan of Walmart? But G-d bless them for their generic drug program. I have fibroid tumors, endometriosis and ovarian cysts. I spend a large chunk of each month in excruciating pain and have had several related surgeries, both in and outpatient.
Our out of pocket fee to see our family doctor is $75 up front, per visit. He bills us for anything not included in that feel. There is always a bill. I have two children. We are at the doctor’s office frequently, though less than we were when they were small. My daughter’s neurologist charges $160 per visit, up front.
Because we are able to COBRA our benefits, we can afford our medications and my kids can go see the doctor when they are sick. My daughter is not forced to endure migraine headaches that often last for up to 10 days without relief from pain. If we didn’t have COBRA, we would be fucked. When the COBRA runs out, we will be fucked. My husband is still not a salaried employee in his field and freelance work is worrisome and unstable.
My mom requires huge amounts of morphine just to roll out of bed each morning, and the drugs that keep her liver failure in remission cost nearly a thousand dollars each month. I like my mom. I like having her alive and relatively pain free.
So yeah, I support Obama’s health care plan. I think Britain has it pretty good. I’ve wistfully thought about Canada’s services. I’m sadly aware that we have it pretty good. We are damn lucky and others have it much, much worse. For them as much for myself, I wish the idiots in Congress and at the Town Hall Meetings across the country would shut the fuck up and get out of the way of progress in health care reform. You know? Just, shut up and go away.
Spread the word.
My company doesn’t subsidize my health insurance premiums, so we pay around $200/week, plus the $600 or so a month for our prescriptions. For just the two of us.
I’m boggled when I hear people say there’s nothing wrong with our current system.
We qualified for Medi-Cal most of the time since the kids came along, although two years ago we had a year with no coverage at all for the adults in the family. Scary with a 50 something husband with a family history of heart disease.
Now I have coverage with my new job, but my premium for the two adults is $350 a month. I only make $2400 a month in the first place so this is a huge hit, but still, they can’t take it away. Or can they? We’re still at the mercy of claim denials and recission no matter what. And copays.
I am a huge supporter of Medicare for All. The system already works, we could buy in for less than we’re paying now and all we would have to do would be show up for the doctor with our SS#. No new overhead, doctors can go back to treating people rather than spending half their time fighting with insurance companies, no parent needs to worry if their child is sick enough to go to the doctor.
Why anyone who claims to have any kind of moral compass can think that their neighbor does not deserve to live, I cannot understand. But that’s what it comes down to, for me. They think some of us deserve to die to make sure that not a single dollar of theirs goes to anyone but themselves. I find that immoral.
If I still lived in California I would be buggered. I have several chronic illnesses that require medication and frequent doctor’s visits and without the NHS I don’t know how I’d manage.
Say it, girl! I am so fed up with these conservative negative people that don’t even know what they are talking about. I visited a blog yesterday and she was talking about euthanasia. I finally had it and let her know what I thought of her opinion. She was having all these women telling she was so wonderful and I said she didn’t know what she was talking about.
Neither one of my adult children has health benefits and I worry every day.
We are one hospital bill away from bankruptcy, even WITH our COBRA benefits. 80/20 coverage is still crippling if you get really sick. :-/
People are really being idiots about this one, and I don’t know where the sudden wave of Stupid came from. I wish they would stop screaming and start listening. I watched this video clip of an Israeli man describing Israel’s system and advocating the public option for Americans as being something positive, and one woman started screaming HEIL HITLER in his face… and then making baby noises.
I was ashamed for her. OF her. Of my fellow Americans.
Yes, but the quote of the month has to be “Shame of you! Shame of you!!” I’d like to shout that at the lot of them!
I can barely think when I hear these selfish, stupid people who oppose health care. Yesterday I saw a clip of Ted Kennedy talking to the Senate, saying he was sickened at the sight of people who have the best insurance in the world and don’t want the taxpayers to have the same. I’m so sorry that your illnesses are made more stressful by a situation that just should not be.