This is a major point of President Obama's Speech and one that needs to be out to the masses of haters in force. Have you ever tried to get health insurance and could not because of a history of Cancer, Heart Disease, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, etc.....
This is why this plan HAS TO PASS and we have to push Congress until it does!!
August 15, 2007, my beloved Father died of Cancer. In October of 2007, we received the bill from this six weeks of treatment before his illness took him. The bill, no JOKE, was $150,000. I remember thinking after seeing this bill, what would have happened to Daddy if he did not have health coverage. No way did I have 150K. The only thing that saved him and my financial future was that he worked for General Motors for 40 years and had retiree health care coverage. That was then, and now....that has changed for the generation X that I belong too.
Flash forward to the year 2030. I will be about 60 years old. I have no retirement plan and no guarantee for health care coverage in the future. My Father's history of Cancer and the fact that he got this disease in his 60's would probably put me at risk of never being able to buy any either. Add my Mother dying of Breast Cancer in 2005 at the age of 66 and I would probably have too many pre-existing conditions to get any coverage.
Enter, President Obama cease and desist of the "Pre-Existing Conditions" cause that ALL health insurance companies uses. This is why this bill HAS to be passed. Another major part of this bill would not allow insurance companies to PICK AND CHOOSE your care when you become ill.
If you think this has NEVER happened to you....think again. Want a certain pill but your insurance company does not pay for it....PICKING and CHOOSING has happened to you. Needed to stay in the hospital a little longer but the insurance company has forced you to go home by stating to your Doctor, they will not pay for another days stay.....PICKING and CHOOSING has happened to you. Go the hospital for pneumonia and was sent home with some meds to "treat yourself", PICKING and CHOOSING has happened to you.
I wonder if experimental or "Non-Traditional" more costly treatments would have been performed on my Dad, would he have survived his Cancer. I still remember the day he took a turn for the worst on August 13, 2007, after weeks of "treatments" the Doctor telling me that my Daddy had less than a 10% chance of living and did we have a living will. I still wonder to this day if it was not Blue Cross Blue Shield, his former insurance company, adding up the costs of "Treatment" and thinking it was better to cut their losses.....though the mouth of the Doctor.
We have to PUSH, PUSH, PUSH for this Health Insurance Bill now. The Pre-Exisitng Conditions part of this bill is worth it alone....with or with-out a public option. Let's KICK THIS BILL into high gear and write your Congressperson and Senator and demand they pass this bill.
Thank you for reading and listening.