3.27 pm: Republican House leader John Boehner speaks: "This bill is a dangerous experiment with the best healthcare system in the world." What, this bill also affects Japan?
White House healthcare summit liveblog, The Guardian UK
This Republican talking point is parroted by the segment of our society most at risk – those who feel they are “entitled” only to their own healthcare because they’ve worked all their lives and paid into their insurance, and those who cannot afford insurance have no right to others’ "hard-earned" money. As long as they have a job, they are safe.
Unreal. Ask any of the 49 million who are uninsured, or any of the almost equal number who are underinsured. There is no safety in numbers.
If I could have lifted the damned TV screen on Summit day, I might have thrown it out the window. Boehner’s "best healthcare system in the world"?
It’s possible to make the case that some elements of health treatment function better here than many places. Arguably, the quality of cancer care I’ve received (and the research behind it) has increased my own lifespan by a few months, thanks to aggressive chemotherapy treatment. Much of the success I've had so far is related more to my geographical location, access to an excellent facility, and the pure luck that I happen to be insured, than it has to do with any U.S. "healthcare system". If I had no insurance and no health-disposable income, you wouldn't be reading this.
As for cost? My most recent session covered five days in the hospital in January, with every-three-hour monitoring of my vitals, urine tests, blood draws, and the periodic checking of my chemo port for leaks – all done by nursing staff whose shifts are 12 hour shifts three to four days a week. I had an early morning visit from resident doctors on their rounds for five minutes once a day. This five day cruise is billed at a bit over $21,000. The final cost negotiated by my insurance is around $15,000. Every 21 days.
Factor in $2000 for each CAT scan every six weeks. $3000 to $4000 for bone scans every eight weeks. Add in doctor bills assessed for each follow-up visit outside the hospital. There is the Neulasta shot each cycle at around $5000 a shot which keeps my white blood cells from bottoming out.
Why should I care? I’m insured. For now.
As of 2007, "about one in 26 Americans have had cancer. By 2020, roughly one in 19 will have been diagnosed with the disease".
The typical price of family coverage now runs about $13,000 a year (employer-sponsored health benefits), but premiums are expected to nearly double, to $24,000, by 2020. Commonwealth Fund. This represents an average median increase to 24% of family income by 2020.
The number of uninsured individuals are expected to increase from about 49 million today to between 57 million and 66 million by 2019. Currently, “almost 21 million uninsured individuals—45% of the total—have a full-time job".
I’ve spent nearly six hours since the televised Healthcare Summit plowing through reader comments to articles in some of the nation’s major papers, listening to several iReport videos CNN’s website featuring viewer opinion on the Summit and on healthcare in general, and scanning blogposts. I spent another two hours going through my own packet of information on Long Term Disability from Prudential, a benefit offered through my employer. And another hour or two has been lost forever reading up on COBRA coverage and applying for Social Security Disability Insurance, a requirement of my long term disability coverage to offset benefit payments so that I will still receive a portion of my current income.
I've discovered that if I don't die within the next two years, I won't be able to afford to live.
Those who think the status quo is sufficient, or the best, or that they are entitled to what they’ve earned through a lifetime of work and that they shouldn’t have to pay for anyone else (public option or single payer or expanded Medicare, or any one of the other options), seem to think they have what they don’t have. Security in things staying as they are.
No one in this country has health security. It doesn’t exist.
Social Security statistics indicate that a “ 20-year-old worker... faces a 3-in-10 chance of becoming disabled before reaching retirement age".
No one can be assured of adequate health care unless they happen to be one of those in the top 1 to 2% of income bracket in the Unites States and can afford any procedure at any price. Why?
This post from The Baseline Scenario gives four reasons:
• Your company could drop its health plan. According to the US Census Bureau, the percentage of the population covered by employer-based health insurance has fallen every year since 2000, from 64.2% to 59.3%.
• You could lose your job...
• You could voluntarily leave your job, for example because you have to move to take care of an elderly relative.
• You could get divorced from the spouse you depend on for health coverage.
We can all add to this list.
- Your company asks you to carry a higher employee portion of your premium and you can’t afford the additional premiums.
- Your company has contracted with a health insurer that is effectively a “junk" insurance company – few procedures actually covered, high deductible for the insured.
- You become disabled, remain medically insured while in long term disability coverage offered by your company, but those benefits end per the policy written after a certain period of time (often between 6 and 24 months) and your company lays you off if you can’t return to work. Most long term disability insurance carriers move you towards Social Security Disability Insurance and COBRA if you remain disabled for a longer term than 6 months.
- You are covered under COBRA for any reason and the premiums are more than you can afford.
- You were employed with a pre-existing disease and the contract between your insurance carrier and your employer allows denial of coverage for your condition.
The most fearful, insecure voters in the United States, those who move farther right with each invocation of terrorist, deny the inherent instability, insecurity, of our healthcare system.
Representative Boehner might have a hard time covering his own health costs should his current employer become unable to cover employee benefits due to budgetary concerns in this, our "best healthcare system in the world".
