Dear Mr. President:
I am writing to encourage you to stand strong in living up to your campaign pledge to provide a government program to compete with private insurers so that all may have access to quality health care. My family provides a vivid example of why this is necessary, sadly however, my example is repeated all across this country. I know that many are worse off than we are, and that is the truly frightening part.
I turned fifty last year, my wife is a couple years younger, and is a diabetic. We have a daughter, Emily who just turned eighteen. At fourteen our daughter was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Three surgical procedures, and two years of chemotherapy later, she is doing fine. Fortunately, my wife worked for a large corporation, and we enjoyed what today passes for good coverage. There were still large out of pocket costs, high prescription copays, and other fees. We did manage, however, to get through the peak of the crisis in relatively decent shape financially. Every time we heard about families who were bankrupted by a health crisis, we felt blessed that we survived.
Last August, I lost my job. Three weeks later my wife lost her job with the corporate benefits. She did receive a severance package, and the benefits were covered for another couple months. Again we thought we were lucky, as she found employment just as the severance ran out. We were able to fill some prescriptions to last the 90 days before the new benefits kicked in. I prayed everyday that none of us slipped on the ice, or came down with the flu for those 90 days with no health care. We had delayed Emily's next scheduled MRI, until the new plan kicked in. Now just as she qualifies for the benefits, she is losing this job, and the mediocre and expensive health care this two bit company offered.
Of course the Republicans say to go out and buy health care on the private market. I ask what company will cover a family that includes a cancer survivor who requires two to three MRI per year, plus two parents around fifty years of age. Even if we could find coverage, I don't think it is going to be affordable.
Now we sit here, both unemployed, trying to figure out how we are going to pay COBRA coverage, our house payment, and for good measure find money for college tuition in the fall.
Mr. President, please remember families like ours when the battle over health care gets heated. I would love a single payer system, but realize that is too far to reach at this time. Do not compromise away the necessary changes to our health care system. Your plan during the campaign was a good one. Stick to it. Do not let the insurance lobby or the Republicans water it down.
I am encouraged that you realize our economy can't improve until we fix health care. If we are going to compete in this global economy, we must be able to wean the burden of health care off our corporations. Providing a government alternative for health care will improve our corporate competitiveness.
Losing your job provides enough stress in this economic downturn. Please make sure we get a health care plan, so being unemployed does not also cost you or your loved ones their health.
Hey! Look at you! Being opinionated and all. Jokes aside, your letter to Obama breaks my heart, and makes me glad to be a Canadian. People complain sometimes about waiting lists, but I have needed a few CAT scans & MRIs the last couple of years (long & boring story - in fact I had an ultrasound 2 weeks ago.) I did have to wait a month or two, but I know that if they had thought it was serious, I would have been given one right away, as happened to a friend of mine when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. (She hits the magic "Five Year" mark this week. Yea!) We do pay monthly premiums, but someone like myself, considered to have no income (another long/boring story) doesn't pay a cent. All of my prescription drugs are paid for as well (Drugs are generally not covered, although there is a sliding scale for payment.) I don't even know anymore what my monthly costs would be if I had to pay for them. At least a couple of hundred.
ReplyDeleteI should get a blog of my own, eh? Kind of a long comment. Anyhow, nice to meet you, Vince.
Yeah,I have been known to have an opinion or two. :). Been playing around with this blog thing for a little while. Always have been a writer wannabe. Now that I have a little "free time", I might stick it out. Still a work in progress, haven't figured out how to post certain things.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, hope your tests came back fine. Happy for your friend as well. Hearing the C word changes life forever.
Nice to meet you too, Judy.
Not sure if you could tell - I wrote this comment before the music industry one. I got feistier as I went along :) Not really. Your (American) health care system is so primitive; I can't feel anything but sadness for you. Republicans and other conservative right-wingers seem absolutely paranoid about 'big government'. Yet countries with the best standards of livings all have 'big', somewhat socialist governments. It seems Americans still equate the word socialist with communist (with Cold War etc.) It's funny: Our Prime Minister is from the Conservative Party, which should mean he's on the right. But really, he's only slightly right of Obama. Our other parties (4 of substance) must seem like a bunch of peace-loving hippies to the average American. Then again, I'm assuming too much. Most Americans probably spend no time at all contemplating the government of another nation, not even their closest neighbour and major trading partner.
ReplyDeleteLosing steam. We'll meet again. Brain is shutting down. J.
So much to respond to.
ReplyDeleteFirst you are not assuming too much. I am a political junkie always have been. Most Americans, however, have a limited knowledge of the real workings of their own government, let alone any understanding of how things are elsewhere.
The divide in this country is still pretty wide. There is a large difference in the way people vote, based on geography. It's not just as simple as red and blue states. Michigan is a pretty consistent blue (i.e. Democratic) state. If you analyze the actual voting results, however, you see that the "blue" vote is concentrated in the populous areas. That is repeated pretty much nationwide. Even in red states, the major cities vote Democratic.
Part of that is cultural. Sometimes I think we would have been better off if the North had lost the Civil War, and redneck nation was another country. Most of those rural areas, have lower quality education, fewer college graduates, and lower standards of living. Yet Republicans for years have successfully managed to get large numbers of thes people to vote against their own financial self interest. Much of it is based on conservative social views, but a lot is subtle racism.
Nixon, started this divide. Pitting decent God fearing Americans, against the hippies and African Americans. Great book last year called Nixonland, really laid out this case. Reagan worked it creating a stereotype, the Cadillac driving welfare queen. Suddenly many of my dad's blue collar colleagues lifelong Democrats were voting Republican. Regan convinced people that"they" were taking your hard earned money.
Of course Regan's biggest success was convincing people that government was the problem. It took eight years of that bumbling idiot, to teach many that big government was not the problem, ineffective government was.
We are reaching the same point with health care. Back in the 90's when Clinton tried, they were able to get the public convinced that their good health care was threatened, and soon you would be waiting for months to see a doctor.
Things are different now. I am cautiously optimistic. So many have lost health care, fear losing it, or have inadequate coverage that something will be able to get done. Will it be enough? Probably not. But it will be a start. Saw a news item today that over 60% of bankruptcies were directly tied to medical issues. These are for the most part people with insurance. We were fortunate that during Emily's illness, we were covered by a large corporation, with a good health plan.
Probably rambled on enough. More later.
Enjoying the discussion. You may force me to keep up this blog. :)
I'm so glad you are a Democrat. If you weren't, I wouldn't be able to blip with you anymore :)
ReplyDeleteYou are also an accomplished rambler. I think I am too, but perhaps on different subjects. My knowledge of political matters is pretty limited, but I like to bat concepts around. Your insights are very interesting to me. I hope I can bring something to these discussions too.
Speaking of bankruptcies, did you notice the GM propaganda during the game. Neil Armstrong? Mohammed Ali? Come on!
Yes, you should keep up with this blog. You should mention it on Blip. Or I could tell my nearly 5000 listeners (whatever) about it. Then again, I like having you to myself :)
Another post-script: When you talk to Obama, make sure he includes mental health in his plan. You can bet that that is contributing to bankruptcies and absentee-ism. Harder to measure, perhaps, but a factor I'm sure.
ReplyDelete