Healthcare Fury

My family has decent health insurance. It costs a fortune. Out of pocket, we pay a couple hundred dollars each month. My husband's employer pays nearly a thousand per month, for our family alone. On top of that, we have a $15 co-pay each time we visit a doctor. If it's an ER trip, it's a $100 co-pay. Additionally, our deductible for lab work is so high, that we pretty much pay for any blood or urine work that needs to be done. I'm wondering if pregnancy would blast through that deductible or not.

Recently I went in for my yearly exam, and the balance on that visit was around $35 after the insurance had paid (plus the co-pay, don't forget). My son had to go to the ER via ambulance, and then had a follow-up with his pediatrician on a weekend. The balance on the ambulance is $180 (it was a NINE HUNDRED dollar ride, for fuck's sake. They drove us two miles), the ER balance is $12, the pediatrician balance is another $15. These are all costs above what we already pay each month. I break into a cold sweat when I think about what would have happened if we were uninsured. Medical bills are the number one reason people file for bankruptcy, though those bills are not discharged by bankruptcy judges.

Our current system does not work. It's corrupt, it's a monopoly, it rips you off and provides sub-standard care. Yet people bitch and moan about Obama's health care plan.

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/HealthCareFullPlan.pdf

Guess what, folks, healthy competition amongst private healthcare is a must (and "the American way"). The truth is, healthcare is a right that every single American deserves, not some nice little side benefit that only the wealthy should enjoy. There should be good quality care that is affordable or free to anyone not covered at work, or who can't afford their portion of the payments each month. We should be able to pick and choose between carriers, and make them compete for our business the way that our cell phone companies and credit card companies do. They should be begging us to use their plan, not the other way around.

When my husband switched jobs a couple of years ago, we had a young toddler and I was pregnant. We were forced to buy COBRA, since there was a 3 month gap before our new insurance kicked in. It was $1200/month for our family of 3. It was, literally, painful each month to send off a check. Obama's corrected that problem, and the government now subsidizes COBRA payments (it works out to around $300 for families and $150 for singles) to a more acceptable level.

I really wonder about people who don't think healthcare should be a top priority. The whole system will come crashing down soon enough if it's not fixed. Or, we can just ignore the whole mess the way the Bush Administration ignored the economy and corrupt Wall Street...Oh, wait, that didn't work out so well, did it?