I was heartened by the news of HB 311 from Ozzie. Political elbowing be damned!
Even if HB 311 is analogous to a child with divorcing parents...Things are moving ahead for a Single-Payer system in Illinois.
Huzzah!
But...
The wind was knocked out of my sails this weekend with this little nugget.
The insurance committee led by state Rep. Frank Mautino (D-Spring Valley) by an 8-to-7 vote rejected House Bill 5600, which would have required insurance companies to cover the cost of hearing aids.
In my first diary here I recounted my trials and tribulations dealing with menieres disease
within this scurrilous health care system.
Now, with the (in)senses I have left, I am REALLY scared...and PISSED!
Let me update you on just where my "head" is at.
I went through another round of neat-o scans...
CT Scan (interesting...CatJab having a CAT scan) and another roll in the ol' MRI.
All in all, about 2 hours in tubes.
I also had a sniffling technician take me through a series of balance tests.
First, there was the hour of knocking sounds my ears were treated to.
Then, warm and cool air was jetted into my ear canals and I was asked to name 5 vegetables...To see how well I could hold it together with air leaking out of my head.
Got to wear a very unflattering pair of "Ghostbuster-Like" goggles with a small camera trained on my eyeball as Mr. Snuffles briskly shook my head about, all willy-nilly, stopping it suddenly and asking me to "Look at zuh dot"
Then he "perturbed" my balance by setting me upon a cushion of sensors, telling me to close my eyes and not fall over...
Yeah...menieres is SUPER fun!
(I kid Mr. Snuffles. He was much better than the doc who said he'd have to cut my head off to give me an answer as to why I had lost 90% of my hearing in my right ear)
Just got the bill on all that...
$5,051.00
I don't think I need to explain the terror of seeing INSURANCE PENDING on the statement.
Now then...
A hearing aid at this point would not help me much now but, Jeeps! I got a birthday coming up and living in the big loud city ain't helpin' the hearing I got left.
I am aware, but TRULY don't understand, that hearing aids are not covered by most insurance plans.
Now I find that something as life changing as hearing loss and as simple as access to hearing aids, are being flipped about like game chips.
I thought we were supposed to think of the children?
Get this.
Republican, Rosemary Mulligan (R-65th), who has said HB 311 is somewhere to the left of socialistic, threw down bill HB 5600 which would require coverage for audiological services and hearing aids for children up to 18 years of age. (Take a lookie-loo at the Co-Sponsors if you please) Bit of a hedge bet making it for the children instead of a flat out...you need it, you should have it regardless of whether you've hit puberty.
But...once an incrementalist always a Republican I guess.
But here we go with the slippery slope analogy...
Still, the insurance committee voted the bill down, agreeing with the insurance industry that such mandates, collectively, create a slippery slope. They drive up the cost of health insurance.
I like the hearing aids as a Lexus analogy too...
"Mandating benefits is like saying to someone in the market for a new car, 'If you can't afford a Lexus loaded with options, you have to walk.' Having that Lexus would be nice, as would having a health insurance policy that covers everything one might want," reads a study from America's Health Insurance Plans. "But drivers with less money can find many other affordable options; whereas when the price of health insurance soars, few other options exist."
And the game playing...
A Republican, Mulligan is a top target in the November election. House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) wants a Democrat in her seat. He certainly wouldn't want to hand her a victory on a bill that benefits hearing aid users, largely an audience of politically active retirees who vote.
So the 3-year-old girl who needs hearing aids ($2,500) gets caught in the political net. It's just the way "the game is played," Mulligan said.
Speaker Madigan signed on as a Co-Sponsor for HB 311 but somehow HB 5600 gets sent to certain death.
These seem to be mixed and toxic messages.
I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat...Stop playing with our lives.