Good afternoon, today I'd like to talk about health care reform and, more specifically, on how important I feel it is that we have at least SOME FORM of public option. If only, at least for now, to give a person the option to divorce their health insurance situation from their employment situation.
To start with, I'll give a little background on my self in order to, I hope, give you an idea of where I'm coming from on this. I'm 28 years old and my wife is 34. Until about a year ago neither of us has had health insurance since we were kids. That changed when I started my current job as a tech. support agent for a major computer manufacturer. So, once we did get insurance, we already had a backlog of things needing to be taken care of. This mostly falls in the dental area. On top of that my wife has mental health issues and back problems that she has to see doctors and take medication for. To be fair, we both have mental health issues but, after $300 a month for premiums and over $100 a month in co-pays for care/medication for my wife, we can't afford any more care than my wife is already receiving. If there were a public option before then I wouldn't be sitting here with a tooth that needs to be pulled and two that should have been pulled a long time ago and have since gotten to the point that my gums have grown over the broken teeth. But, as I said before, I'm struggling to afford the premiums and the care my wife currently is receiving. The backlog of stuff that needs to be done has to take a back seat to that and if there were a public option previously it would have never come to this point. Also, with the two teeth that should have been taken care of a long time ago, it costs a lot more to have teeth cut out than to have them pulled. At this point I'll have to see the only specialists in the area at a cost, before insurance, of $300 a tooth VS. the $100 to have had them pulled when they should have been. $200 extra and that doesn't take into account that it would have been even less expensive if I could have had regular cleanings or even get cavities filled as needed.
So, now that I have health insurance through work, why am I still calling for a public option? Well, first of all, me having insurance doesn't help the guy who took my order at Burger King last night get health care. Does that guy who took my order live with dental pain on a daily basis? It hurts me to think that, even if he doesn't, someone at that store last night probably is. Even if a public option was put in place that would disqualify my family due to having coverage, we still need a public option for those down on their luck working a crap job just to get by. Come on, these people already have to deal with the humiliation of working fast food, should they have to deal with the pain of medical, dental, vision or mental health problems that go untreated to? And, speaking of mental health care, how many adults who work in fast food suffer from untreated mental health problems that ensure they'll never rise above fast food jobs? Its easy to say that they should find better jobs. However, it can be impossible to hold down a job when depression weighs you down to the point that you can't even seem to get out of bed. Not to mention things like bi-polar disorder. Even when in depressive phases I'd still go to work. However, during manic phases you have to deal with uncontrollable impulsiveness. This causes you to do things like tell that prick of a manager to "F" off and walk off shift before you even realise that you were thinking about it.
Anyway, lets put the altruistic aside and get back to what I started out writing about. PLEASE Congress, give us a public option for health insurance. Even if all it does is divorce our health insurance status from our employment. By that I'm talking about things like, if you already have insurance, you can go down to your county's DFS office and sign up for the public option which simply transfers your current plan over to the public option. In my case it would mean that, rather than the company I work for taking $300 a month out of my checks to cover my insurance, I would pay that same $300 a month for the public option. My co-pays, Rx costs and everything else would remain the same.
Now, you may be asking yourself, WTF would the point of that be. I'd still be paying the exact same in out of pocket expenses and, as we know from Medicare/Medicaid, the public option has much lower overhead and can provide the same care for much less. That, combined with a larger risk pool would at least allow our Government to offer the same care for just what I pay for my insurance. At face value this doesn't seem to make any sense. However, for me and millions of others working jobs at the bottom rung of employment that at least provides insurance, what this would do is improve our OPTIONS. The way things are know people like me are screwed. We're overworked in stressful jobs and underpaid for the work we do. Also, our Government would have the incentive, due to long term considerations, to cover things my current provider doesn't. Drugs like Chantix to help people quit smoking.
Sure, I could find another job. Maybe even one that would provide insurance. Problem is, while waiting for the insurance to kick in, we couldn't afford for my wife to see her psychiatrist, couldn't afford her psych medication and, to top it all off, what if something happened and we needed emergency medical care?
Yes my friends, options. A public plan, even if costing the same as what I already have, would give me options. The option to leave my stressful job as a tech. support agent, a job I'm overqualified in, for something that pays better or is just less stressful. Something like taking a job working for a small computer repair shop, allowing them to take more repairs, make more money, hire more people and maybe even expand to open another location where I'd have a chance of being promoted to manage the new store or possibly be made a full partner in the new location!
In closing I'd just like to say this. A public option is good for me, millions of others like me, small businesses and maybe you. Thank you for reading.
EDIT... Made a correction to the part about untreated conditions where I started off saying they were untreated and closed off the sentence saying they were untreated.
Also, I've only covered what would happen if you already have insurance to show how it would benefit people who currently have coverage through employment. This would be of no benefit to the people who have no coverage. They, of course, are of the highest priority. The above pretty much skipped over them as the diary was more about how it would help those who already had insurance and I apologise if it seemed that I was leaving them out. With my idea they would receive coverage at a means tested price. Even if it meant someone making the same $12 bucks an hour that I do got their coverage for less. The reason for this is to help it get through Congress with out Republicans being able to complain about Socialism, people ditching current coverage for cheaper socialised options as much. They'd still complain about it but would give us a comeback that there isn't much incentive to switch if you're paying the same for coverage. It would however, still give people the option to switch over if it made sense for reasons like moving to a new area/job.