I just sent email to Senators Murray and Cantwell regarding the public option. I think we all need to do our part to let our senators know how we feel about healthcare. Text of my email after the jump.
Dear Senator [Murray/Cantwell],
Like many people, I was laid off from work several times in the 1990s. One time, when the company I worked for went out of business just as I was going on temporary disability, I couldn't even get COBRA coverage because they had recently shrunk to fewer than 20 employees. I was unable to qualify for Medi-Cal, CA's version of Medicaid. I was able to get some care through Los Angeles County, but it was very limited - one might even say rationed.
I eventually got better, got back to work, and was once again insured, but I was laid off from work in 2001 and unemployed for about four years. I was living in Vancouver, WA at the time. For the first 18 months, I paid for COBRA which was unbelievably expensive. When it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to get a new job for awhile, I applied for WA Basic Health. Although I was approved to join, I was not allowed to do so due to lack of space in the system. By the time I found out I wasn't going to be covered, my COBRA had expired and I could no longer claim a continuation of coverage. That made a huge difference to the insurance companies I was trying to buy coverage from. I ended up having to go without insurance at all for almost a year. I could instead have paid a fortune for coverage that excluded any pre-existing conditions.
During that time my husband and I stopped taking some of our medications due to the expense, and probably didn't see doctors as often as we should have for chronic conditions.
We did eventually get covered by Basic Health, and we were very pleased both by the subsidized cost to us and the coverage. Still, at one point when I needed surgery, I had to demonstrate that it wasn't due to a pre-existing condition. Had it been, it would have cost me over $20,000 that I didn't have instead of the reasonable co-insurance I paid.
The for-profit insurance industry has chosen to exclude rather than include, to ration care, and to continually raise our premiums while giving us less for our money. Patients, physicians, and hospitals struggle while the insurance companies make inordinate profits.
Every day people are forced into bankruptcy or foreclosure due to medical expenses. Thousands of people are dying because they didn't feel they could go to the doctor for treatable conditions. Our emergency rooms and urgent care clinics are overwhelmed.
Given my personal experience of dealing with the high cost of providing my own insurance and suffering from the lack of it, I am very upset to learn that we might not get a public option in the healthcare bill. It is pathetic that we are the only industrialized nation that doesn't provide even minimal healthcare to all citizens. It is time for America to invest in the wellness of its people.
I hope you will have the courage to fight for the public option. The Republicans are lying about how much it would cost and about the fact that a vast majority of Americans want to see it happen. Don't let them kill it.