Senators, whether Republican or Democratic, whether Center Right, Right, or Far Right: Do the RIGHT Thing. Be a hero, wage the good fight and then pass an inclusive Public Health Care Option. If you lose your next election, you can leave Congress having made history. But you might be in for a surprise and find that we will support you. Or you can calculate (or miscalculate) your best interest, thinking of your Senate seat rather than the American people. What’s the use in retaining that seat if you have the lives and the livelihoods of millions of Americans on your conscience?
Around 1961, as a five year old, I had a life threatening illness, spent two weeks in the hospital, months recuperating at home and was on medicine three times a day for the next three years. Listening to the costs in the newly proposed Health Care plans, I was curious how my middle class family had afforded all of this. So I asked my Dad how he had paid for my care. He remembers paying a premium of at most $216 per year for the whole family of six, via fraternal insurance from The Knights of Columbus; and that all my care was covered under this plan. The dues for the membership into the Knights of Columbus were low, next to nothing. If Inflation Rate calculators are correct, that $216.00 per year family health insurance premium would now cost $1,560 per year, or $130 per month (U.S. Inflation Calculator). What would my family have done without this insurance? How would we all have survived?
That was in good economic times when more people were employed and everyone was less pressed for money; many families were fully supported by a single wage earner. Fast forward to today when unemployment is high, salaries are low, and even families with two full-time wage earners are having difficulty making ends meet. To help all of us, Congress is proposing new Health Care options. Some plans are suggesting pooling the uninsured into large groups, making us eligible to vie for low premiums. However these "low" premiums as proposed in the Baucus Health Care Plan, the plan we are hearing the most about, would only cap premiums
up to 13 percent of income for people who earn 300 percent of the poverty level. They stay at the 13 percent level up to 400 percent of the poverty level. . .For families earning $66,000, he (Keith Olbermann) added, "that is $700 a month they'd have to pay. If the families do not buy that insurance at that rate, they would be fined nearly half that amount." (Politifact.com)
I have heard there would be some exemptions from fines for people who couldn’t pay, but would those people actually have any health insurance coverage?
But there is more, Deductibles:
Mr. Baucus would impose limits on out-of-pocket medical costs — the co-payments, deductibles and similar charges for covered items and services. The limits would be $11,900 a year for a family and $5,950 for an individual. The comparable numbers in the House bill are $10,000 and $5,000. (emptywheel, The Bad Max Tax)
So, we are looking at total potential annual costs for a family earning $66,000 (would that be Gross or Net pay?) of up to $20,300 if they use services:
Now, of course families would only have to pay that limit if they used enough services to reach that limit--though in Bad Max's plan, health insurance companies are asked to cover far less of actual expenses, so in Bad Max's plan, families are going to reach that limit relatively quickly. (emptywheel, The Bad Max Tax)
My Dad today would have to pay 1300% more than he paid in 1961, when adjusted for inflation, to treat my life threatening illness and to care for the rest of the family’s medical needs.
This doesn’t sound like the break for the Middle Class that was promised to us during election campaigns, by both sides. And what is there to help people who are currently getting insurance through their employment, but who still have high premiums? What is there in the Baucus Plan to help bring those premiums down? Nothing.
We need a Non-Profit Public Option that everyone would be able to choose if they want. We need to begin to bring down Health Care Insurance costs so that none of us have to worry more about the price of illness than of illness itself. That should be expected, not a privilege, in an advanced society.
Senators, Do the RIGHT thing! Cheers for the Public Option!
To a standing ovation, Rep. Joe Sestak supports and explains the Public Option in his Town Hall Meeting on August 12, 2009 at The Broad Street Ministry in Philadelphia, PA.