I was surprised to learn over the weekend that my conservative mother supports the public option and the Democrats' health care reform in general. I was surprised because she has gotten more conservative as she aged (late 60's); she has become one of those types that mindlessly forwards conservative chain emails (I finally flipped out on one of them and so I'm no longer on the distribution thank God).
You see, there's a "donut-hole" per se in basic insurance coverage for seniors in their late 50's or early 60's who have lost coverage, get coverage terminated, or who have come down with a chronic condition but who don't yet qualify for Medicare: those people get SCREWED by Big Insurance. My mom is one of their victims.
Because of the problems she faced getting health insurance coverage and because of the astonomical monthly cost she faced after finally finding some crappy coverage in the years prior to qualifying for Medicare, she understandably supports the Democrats' changes to the insurance system.
She spoke this weekend like someone that wants revenge for the financial rape she suffered at the hands of Big Insurance.
Her story is the norm. It is a certainty that a large percentage of those "angry" seniors you see at health care town halls are simply partisans who are willing to hurt themselves for Republicans' political gain because they face this same treatment if the system isn't changed. I think we are witnessing a form of Stockhold Syndrome. What else can explain their protecting their once or future tormenters? They KNOW they are next to receive this treatment but they still lobby for financial ruin and lack of coverage?! Stockholm syndrome.
Stockholm Syndrome
Definition
Stockholm syndrome refers to a group of psychological symptoms that occur in some persons in a captive or hostage situation. It has received considerable media publicity in recent years because it has been used to explain the behavior of such well-known kidnapping victims as Patty Hearst (1974) and Elizabeth Smart (2002). The term takes its name from a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, in August 1973. The robber took four employees of the bank (three women and one man) into the vault with him and kept them hostage for 131 hours. After the employees were finally released, they appeared to have formed a paradoxical emotional bond with their captor; they told reporters that they saw the police as their enemy rather than the bank robber, and that they had positive feelings toward the criminal. The syndrome was first named by Nils Bejerot (1921–1988), a medical professor who specialized in addiction research and served as a psychiatric consultant to the Swedish police during the standoff at the bank. Stockholm syndrome is also known as Survival Identification Syndrome.
http://medical-dictionary.thefreedic...
My bold.
Either that or they are just plain ignorant of what they face if they come down with a chronic condition. Thus my diary here.
My mom's story isn't remarkable. I am certain that her story is the norm for seniors. And most seniors have health issues of some sort or other, mostly weight-related issues, so most of those "screamer" seniors at health forums that haven't reached Medicare age WILL suffer my mom's predicament without reform.
And ironically, those "angry" town hall people, if they had their way, wouldn't even be able to rely on Medicare once they finally reach 65!
My mom had had knee replacement surgery at one point, has border-line type-2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. So she has some health issues but she's doing better now that she's under Medicare and can afford treatment. She has even lost weight due to preventative care.
But in the years prior to Medicare, she got dropped from one insurance plan, couldn't find coverage for over a year (two years? can't recall), had to pay out of pocket for health care during that time, and the coverage she did finally find cost around $700 per month and it was bad coverage with a high deductible.
My parents made decent money before retirement so most seniors in this situation would have had to go to the emergency room for coverage or would have had to do without.
THIS is the future seniors face if Democratic politicians, who are supposedly on the fence and who are incidentally taking money from Big Insurance, kill real health care reform, reform that lowers rates.
Republicans are of course a lost cause, having been bought and paid for long ago, so the blame for the seeming breakdown of real health insurance reform lies squarely with Democratic senators on the dole of Big Insurance.
Real reform that lowers these astronomical costs can only be accomplished with a public plan that competes with these murder-by-spreadsheet thugs that control the health insurance industry.
So the next time you see those "angry" seniors spouting their anti-government talking points, just know those people are or will be receiving severe treatment at the hands of the insurance industry prior to being saved by Medicare.
They are people willing to sacrifice their family's financial well-being for partisan gain.