I remeber a skit from the David Letterman show that featured Bill Murray. Bill would go up to people on the street, put his arm around them, look around to make sure that no one was eavesdropping, then ask the person if they "would prefer a hard punch in the stomach, or a swift kick in the butt? Your choice." Bill Murray is a comedy genius, so the skit was rather funny. The insurance company that provides the healthcare coverage for my employer pulled a similar stunt yesterday. But it was not nearly as funny as the one that appeared on David Letterman.
The "hard punch in the stomach, swift kick in the butt" version from our insurance provider was in the form of us being able to re-new the plan we currently have, however it would mean a 76% increase in my contribution to the plan - the punch in the stomach option. The swift kick in the butt option was to select a plan with a higher deductible, higher co-payment for doctor's office visits, reductions in other benefits, etc., with my contribution increasing by "only" 48%. My employer selected the swift kick in the butt option. Adding to the pain of the swift kick in the butt is the fact that wages have been stagnant, well more like a dry creek bed, because raises have been frozen for almost two years.
The reason that our healthcare provider gave for the precipitous increase was that (due to recent layoffs of employees with the least seniority, basically the youngest employees) the average age of our census increased by almost two years and that moved us into a different "risk" bracket. It is, indeed, a bitch getting old. And in more ways than the aches and pains.
What I am describing above is not at all unique, there are many people who are going through the same thing. There are many people that I know who, when faced with the punch in the stomach or kick in the butt option, have chosen neither and opted to not be insured at all.
When I think about what has happened to so many people that I know, I have a very, very hard time trying to understand the anger of the people who try to disrupt the civil discourse of the town hall meetings relating to healthcare that have been held during this congressional recess. These people seem to be about my age, some younger, many older. I can't believe that they are not going through the same financial manipulations with their health insurance providers that I, and many of the people I know, are going through with our health insurance providers. I don't know of any health insurance company that has offered price reductions to their consumers, none, nada, zip. I also know, from my own experience and from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, that the average weekly earnings for production and non-supervisory manufacturing workers has increased by on $0.58 between July of 2008 and July of 2009. That is a hell of a lot less than what their insurance costs have increased.
What I do know is that a single payer system will result in substantial savings for my family over the system now in place. I know this because I have seen the data collected by Healthcare For ALLPA. That may be what is need to get the message across at these townhall meetings, some facts and figures. Granted, there are people at this meeting who are just plain angry that their party lost the election, and that President Obama is not white. But data indicates that 70% of Americans support a single payer system. Why are not more of these people speaking up? This is something that has to be done now, right away. The current system is broken and it is not going to get any better, most likely it will get worse.
EMBA30