Health Care Reform

I understand why many people are opposed to health care reform. Frankly, the idea of the government taking anything over frightens people.

I'm somewhat ashamed to say that before I was diagnosed with cancer I was rather oblivious to health care. I knew I had health insurance. I assumed it would be there if I ever needed it. But I never really tried to understand it.

Now, I've experienced the entire process very personally. If you walked a day in my shoes you might change your perspective.

It is a complex issue.

Let's start with one basic question - what kind of society do we want to be?

We don't have any problem using tax dollars to fund public libraries, museums, some colleges. That's all good stuff. That makes us a better society. I do believe there are certain basics to a culture that everyone should have access to. It's what separates us from many other countries around the world.

So why wouldn't we want everyone to have access to health? How can anyone sit there, of good conscience, and say "I don't care if people of our country suffer and die because they can't access care."

Shame on us.

Under the current system, the wealthy can pay for care, the poor can get assistance, and all of us in the middle-class, the largest class of all, have our life savings completely drained.

It's not right.

I hear a lot of people say that the government involving itself in providing health care to all would be equal to socialism. But I haven't heard one proposal yet that is suggesting the end to private insurance. The proposal is to add government funded insurance programs to compete with existing private insurance.

We have a state and federally funded college system in Pennsylvania which offers kids a more affordable option for higher education. Without that many students could not afford to go to college. Not everyone can afford the University of Pennsylvania, and no one has ever suggested that Penn should go away.

No one is suggesting that private health care go away either. This is an issue of compassion, of morales and values. This is an issue of being truly a more advanced, civilized society.

If you do not support health care reform, then you do support peoples' suffering.

I'd like to share some of the examples of the stupidity of the current system, that I've experienced personally.

Some years ago Congress passed the HIPPA statute that guarantees that any person joinging a group insurance policy could not be denied insurance based on a pre-existing condition.

But, for some reason, anyone seeking their own personal health insurance policy could be denied insurance based on a pre-existing condition.

If the company you work for went under and you wanted to be a responsible person and buy your own health insurance, and had a pre-existing condition, you would be denied. Barb was. We finally had to settle for an insurance plan that would cover her at a steep monthly premium without covering her pre-existing condition.

Once I was diagnosed with cancer, I was stuck with my health insurer. Because of my pre-existing condition, I couldn't possibly get health insurance anywhere. And the insurance company knows I'm stuck. They screw me every chance they get. My monthly premiums have doubled in four-years. How's that for cost of living increases? Whew, talk about inflation. Health insurance is easily our biggest cost every month.

My insurance company has denied me coverage, changed my policy, broke our contract. They know I can't do anything about it.

I've gone to legislators. I've gone to the Pennsylvania Insurance Commission. The insurance commission found my insurance company in the wrong but the only result was forcing them to abide by the original contract until the end of the contract year - three months.

Talk to a doctor about the current system. See what he or she thinks. I hear it all the time. The way the current system operates insurance companies are the ones who make treatment decisions, not doctors. Everything comes down to whether the insurance company will pay for it or not.

The health insurance companies are doing very well financially. The hospitals are absolutely rich. The profits earned by Lancaster General Hospital this past year were unreal!

Haven't we learned anything from our recent financial crash? Haven't we learned anything about the problems of greed?

And what area could possibly be worse to practice greed than in one of the basic essences of life and society - all of our own health?

Please consider health care reform carefully.