I used to sell healthcare years ago. I learned things about healthcare that would shock anyone and scare every single person in America into writing and thinking about nothing else until it is settled. Half of all bankruptcies in America are due to healthcare costs and these include as many wealthy as poor people. There are dozens of pills your doctor could give you for something that they were not originally made for. One is for depression but it helps some pain. Take that pill and you are never going to get insurance (you could be "depressed"). The insurance lobby is spending millions to lie to you and this time if they win it will bankrupt all but the very wealthiest and healthiest people. Below is the truth of what can happen and how they are trying to keep you from understanding the truth. We could become a nation of healthcare poverty. You think wall street got rich... healthcare makes them look like compassionate givers...
The republicans favorite "scare" is that you will stand in a long line if we have healthcare coverage by a government provider, whether it's one of all the current options or single payer (which means that the US would only have one insurance carrier.. like in Canada, or like medicare but for everyone). The second thing is they have people terrified that the cost will be horrific, we'll pay it for the rest of our lives and our children's lives, and it will blow up the deficit.
The truth is we already pay for every single person that does not have healthcare. We cover children under medicaid. Adults have to go to an emergency room if they have so much as a sniffle but the law says they have to be covered. This already costs more than a government option, and costs hugely more than single payer. But a government option is probably all that is possible and they are trying everything, including millions in TV ads to kill it. If all of us don't contact all of our Senate and House representatives we could lose everything
The most dangerous thing is that, if insurance companies get their way, employers will lose the tax deduction for covering employees, anyone could then be turned down and then the only hope for any child is welfare healthcare and emergency rooms and free clinics for adults. Talk about long waits... try a free clinic with hundreds of serious drug addicts and homeless people depending on them. And the stupid republicans "owe lobbyists" and don't realize that someone in their family is at risk for this too. Half of ALL bankruptcies are due to healthcare costs and this includes a lot of formerly well to do people, not just poor people, who are much worse off.
First, insurance companies want to take away any incentive for employers to cover us. That way we have to get approved on our own. That alone would put another 20 or so million people with no insurance instantly. They only want to cover healthy people. Second, they have every trick in the book to "uncover" you if something happens. I know a young man who had Blue Cross and he moved from NC to New York. He had a claim and they canceled him for moving without telling them. His father now finds some way to pay around $300 thousand a year for his care as he has since gotten cancer. Both father and son will surely die in abject poverty. He will eventually be covered by medicaid (welfare healthcare) but he will live in poverty. These were once quite wealthy people.
When people lose their job they think Cobra will save them. Cobra lasts a limited time. (It may be 2 years, I'm not sure now). But if you are healthy when you go on Cobra and you get sick or have an accident, when it runs out you cannot get insurance at any price.
I am a diabetic (not born with it) but it has been under control for over 10 years and I have no side effects at 58 years old. If my husband didn't have coverage through work I would not qualify for any insurance at any price. And if you have almost anything neither will you. I would have to divorce my husband, go into poverty and qualify for medicaid. I will not make the person I love live in poverty for me. (I'm so afraid of this I cry about it almost every day.)
But the most baffling thing to me is that ANY republican, unless they work for the government can lose their insurance if they lose their job. If employers are not given a tax break to cover employees they will stop. They won't be able to afford it. So every republican, no matter how rich, (well except Bill Gates types) can find themselves uncovered. They will immediately find themselves waiting for hours in an emergency room or at the few free clinics, with serious drug addicts and the homeless. They don't believe it... one told me that the insurance companies would never do that to them. They already are! They don't understand that insurance companies are lobbying hard, they are monopolies, and they have paid our senators campaigns and now they expect protection. The latest thing is a "trigger" option. If insurance companies don't do better it would trigger a debate on reform. This is a simple way to kill reform forever... how could you prove they haven't tried?
And people think the President isn't fighting hard enough. What many don't know is that some Democratic Senators are fighting reform harder than republicans are. If fact, repubs are sitting back and letting us kill it. Max Baucus apparently feels that insurance companies elected him and Ben Nelson and Evan Bayh may be helping him. But he is leading the charge against any change. Unless every American calls, writes and emails them to tell them that we will fight their reelection as hard as they have fought against us they will win. But you have to be sure you go to the gov.org site. (Google "contact senators". But the republicans have a fake site so make sure you have to fill out a short form with your name and that they thank you for writing. Normally they only listen to people from their own state but if thousands from all over America write them it scares them into acting like human beings. Write all the Democrats, but mainly those three. Call if you can. And I don't know about the republcian idiots. Good luck to us all.