Hey it is great to live in America. We are the greatest country in the world. Okay that's what we say but the reality is different. Many countries have us beat when it comes to medical care and paying for it. Here in America we have insurance to pay for medical care. Thanks to the ACA we are now required to carry insurance at least if you are above a certain income level. Insurance helps us pay for medical care. It doesn't cover everything and it sure doesn't pay the whole bill until you hit that magic number that is your maximum out of pocket cost of your policy. Then at the end of the year that resets and once again you are paying. Other countries laugh at us. They believe medical care is a basic right.
Yep there are issues with what is called universal coverage or universal care. Most are not true universal care programs. They do not cover everything. Some don't cover dental or eye glasses. Some will not cover what they deem elective surgery. Those nasty little Republicans will bring out the "death panels" rumors if we tried to get universal coverage here or at least expand the single payer programs we have for the VA and Medicare to cover all of us. They will kick and scream about grandma being killed off to save money. Beware of the boogie man, don't let your grandma die to save yourselves some money. Then when they get their butts kicked on that they will bring out the argument that it will cost more in taxes. Yep it will. The trade off is no medical bills. Head to the doc for your yearly physical and it is free. You pay zip, zilch, nada however you want to say it. Have an accident and burn your arm on the stove ? No problem your bill is covered. Little Jimmy breaks an arm playing Little League ? No biggie. Head on over to the ER and don't worry about the bills.
Republicans want to keep the status quo. See lots of of powerful lobby groups will be paying out a lot of cash to keep the status quo. Gone will be the huge insurance industry. They will have much less of a role than now. They will provide travel insurance, dental and vision insurance and insurance for some medical stuff like a private room or elective surgery. Hospitals will be kicking and screaming as well. No more 4 pages of bills for a one day hospital stay. Now it will be one line. Hospital room $800.00 or what ever the actual charge is. No more add ons so no more ripping us off by charging us $100.00 bucks for a couple of Tylenol. Doctors will also be kicking and screaming at least some of them. The wise ones will realize the benefits of single payer. No more needing a huge staff just to file insurance claims. No need for a large billing department to chase after people who can't pay their bills. Records would be a snap and so would filing a claim. Then there are the drug companies. They sabotaged President Bush's Medicare Part D drug plan. They got the politicians to ban CMS from negotiating drug prices for Medicare patients. Think about how drug prices would be lower if that was the case. Too bad the drug company lobbyists killed it. No more $600.00 or more for generic drugs for a one month supply.
I have experience on both sides of the insurance issue. No I am not some over pad executive. Hell I wish. Maybe then I wouldn't be going broke trying to afford my insurance and medical bills. I have a chronic condition that requires monthly treatment. This costs me out the ass. Sorry about the swearing but that is what it is. I screwed up my back years ago. I had surgery and got relief. Then It came back. I needed more surgery three years ago for which I am still trying to pay off my bills. I still owe my freaking surgeon over $200.00 bucks for follow up visits and consultations. I go to pain management which tries to get my pan down to a livable level and fails yet I still have to pay for them. I owe them almost $3000.00 bucks just from the last six months and I have insurance. How the hell can this be ? I have a 90/10 policy with a $2500.00 deductible but it also has a $1000.00 drug plan deductible. Then there is the $5000.00 Out of Network deductible. See my pain management clinic has found a nice little way of making more cash from it's patients. They do our mandatory drug tests n house at their own little lab. Then they charge almost $3000.00 for that privilege. They made sure they had no deal with any insurance company so they are "Out of Network". You would think that since we don't have a choice in what lab they use it would be automatically considered "In network" but nope. So what happens is insurance pays out the "average costs" for these tests and then the patient is left holding the bag for the rest. If they bill $1000.00 for one test and the average is $200.00 then the patient is stuck with the remaining $800.00 to pay and they can charge what they want. Nothing to stop them charging $10,000.00 for that test and forcing the patient to pay for the difference. They are breaking no laws and the patient has no recourse.
So here I am, a hard working guy who makes an Okay living and I can't pay my bills. I have decent insurance and yet I owe a huge amount of money for my medical care. Biggest kick in the pants is I need to continue to see the pain management clinic every 60 days minimum to keep getting my prescriptions that allow me to go to work. That 60 day time frame is set by politicians to make sure I am not an addict and to make sure that the pain clinic is not a pill mill. There is no medical necessity for me to go in every 60 days but it does benefit the pain clinic.
Jump on down past the orange graffiti and see what will happen.
What is someone in my situation to do ? Any extra money I have is spent paying down my medical bills. Can't get a newer car though mine is on it's last legs at 13 years old. Can't replace the dishwasher which quit working 18 months ago. Can't replace the dryer which is making odd sounds and sounds like it will explode when we run it. Praying the hot water heater makes it a couple more years before quitting. Forget getting the AC fixed. Hell why not just enjoy our wonderful summer heat in the high 90's with 90% or higher humidity. I figure it will take about 20 grand to just fix everything and get a halfway decent car maybe a little less since I shop for bargains for everything.
Is this the American way ? Is this the new American dream ? Is this going to be the new norm ? I sure as hell hope it isn't but it sure looks this way. The cost of medical care is heading up at a rapid pace. The cost of insurance is going up. Pay is not heading in the right direction unless of course you happen to be in the 1%. So what can anyone do ? I know what I would love to see. Single Payer to be rolled out across our nation for all. I do know that even with decent insurance we will go broke paying for medical care all it takes is just one unfortunate accident and boom there goes your cash.