So, who has personal (familial) reasons to want REAL health care reform rather than just a band-aid?

[Mythsaje]

It's been suggested to me that to be pushing for single payer or a STRONG public option (as a distant second) is an act of selfishness. I disagree. I'll go on record as saying I have decent coverage (double coverage, even) and I do not need this for myself or my wife, though I cannot insure my children as well as I'd like because of insurance company rules. (I'm not the custodial parent and my own insurance isn't really adequate for their needs--my wife's would be, but they don't live with us).

I mention that in the interests of full disclosure. My advocacy for health care reform has more to do with what I remember going through as a young adult than any concern I have now.

Oh, on edit, and here's my take.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5790991&mesg_id=5790991

[paulsby]

1. purely political, not personal

my health care plan is phenomenal and my employer pays it all.

the benefits are great, the insurance company is extremely open and accessible, and i have never had the slightest problem.

it's all gravy.

i recognize there is no way that single payer, etc. would be better for me. it would certainly be worse.

but i still support a national healthcare for everybody plan.

i'm lucky. well, i worked very hard to get what i've got, but you know what i mean

[Mythsaje]

2. I do, and I think the "selfish" accusation is completely bogus.

You probably WOULD be worse off if single payer were passed, but you're one of the few very lucky ones.

[paulsby]

4. i'm a public employee

cop, specifically.

cops and firefighters tend to have very good healthcare plans.

a large part of this is the effectiveness of our unions to fight for these benefits.

and of course, we don't have to worry about our employer turning a profit, or not being able to because our plan is too expensive.

[Mythsaje]

7. Understandable...

And it makes the fact you stand up for true reform even more laudable. Thank you.

[paulsby]

11. yw nt

[eridani]

41. You do realize that private companies could still provide supplemental insurance, correct?

That would be in the case that single payer does not provide as much as you have now.

[paulsby]

43. it wouldn't provide as much

60 free massages a year?

30 chiropractic appointments?

$5 for drugs

etc.

[eridani]

50. It doesn't have to. The Medicare option would do the heavy lifting n/t

[vadawg]

6. im in the same boat as paulsby, my only want is that i am still able to purchase

private insurance if i want it, that would be my only condition.

[Mythsaje]

9. I think even if there were single-payer, there should be that option

as there is in Canada. It would be a fringe market that could be of considerable value.

[damntexdem]

16. Yeah, there was no category for me.

Of course, we all do pay for lack of coverage for all; and the current system hurts us all. But my reasons for supporting single payer are political and professional, not primarily personal.

[question everything]

35. I pay for my own insurance, and every year it has gone up 20%

still, like you, I like to have a choice.

I like the system that they have in France

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8449596

where you have a single payer for everyone, and a choice for the ones who are willing to pay. Or, as I have observed many times: compare this to the school system. All of us, whether we have children in school or not, support the public school systems, but the ones that choose a private one are free to pay for it.

[Mythsaje]

36. Seems reasonable to me. n/t

[eridani]

42. Nothing about single payer would make supplemental private insurance illegal

All single payer countries have that, including Britain and Canada.

[Ms. Toad]

3. Don't know quite how to answer that poll.

My reasons are very personal from an emotional standpoint because I have a daughter who has two chronic illnesses that require around $60,000 a year in health care. They are not currently personal from a financial standpoint.

I currently have insurance, provided through work, that covers most of the cost of her care. Single payer will leave me out of pocket in nearly the same position.

In two months, my daughter will age out of my insurance - unless - she can maintain status as a full time student or find employment that provides insurance. Her health status may prevent that. If that is the case I will be paying around $14,000 a year in health insurance premiums to make sure she has access to health care. Financially, if she is not going to college for the next four years but I have to pay insurance premiums I still come out ahead.

It is not my health that is at issue, and I don't really consider my daughter extended family.

My reasons are also philosophical. I believe quality health care should be available to everyone in this country, regardless of their health, wealth, employment, or ability to maintain their status as a full time student.

I am willing to pay more personally in order to make sure that folks not as lucky as I am to have adequate health insurance through work - or the financial means to otherwise pay for care - still have access to health care. I am willing to pay my fair share through taxes on my personal health care benefits or through an income based tax that provides a refundable tax credit (or direct premium payment) for those below a certain level, and taxes me to pay for that credit or (other means that "rob" from the rich to provide for the poor - but that "poor" is likely to include my daughter, at least once she graduates from college).

That still doesn't tell me how to answer your poll :shrug:

[Mythsaje]

5. Hmmm.

I'm not sure how to even include an option that fits your particular case.

[Ms. Toad]

15. A start would be to put "immediate family member"

somewhere in the poll.

If that had been there I would have figured out something and posted an explanation. Since the coverage issue is my daughter - and she's not me and she's not extended family - I'm stymied.

On edit: Now I see that option. I must be blind.

[petersjo02]

8. Personal for me

I retired at age 62, primarily for health reasons, and was able to stay on COBRA for 18 months. I searched for health care to cover the next 18 months until I turned Medicare-eligible and was turned down every time. I've had two heart attacks, have stage 3 kidney failure, have had two major surgeries on cervical and lumbar spine, etc., etc. As a last resort, I finally joined Iowa's state program for the otherwise uninsurable. Paying full price for COBRA, and then the HIP Iowa cost me well over $9,000 for the 36 months on my own for insurance. I took the cheapest option HIP Iowa offered, which had a high co-pay and huge deductible. Thank god for Medicare and BC/BS Medicare supplement options. Medicare has to take you no matter what. BC/BS have 6 or 8 options that are mandated by federal law. They must also accept all comers IF the applicant has be insured within the last 60 days before becoming medicare-eligible

Single payer will be best. Public option with several choices and REASONABLE rates next best. Here's hoping!

[Mythsaje]

10. Best of luck...

Sounds like you went through the wringer.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. I answered one of your "not personal" choices .... bur, really, it *is* personal for me

Right now, I am very fortunate that I can afford a high level of coverage. I pay a shitload of money for it .... but I have it.

But what if didn't have it and couldn"t afford it?

I am solidly in the "there but for the grace of dog ..." camp. I CARE about people I don't even know and will never meet. On that level, it IS personal for me.

[Mythsaje]

13. That's probably similar to my "I've been there and could be there again" stance.

I get it.

[Cleita]

14. I work for a doctor and I'm appalled at the number of people who aren't

insured, are underinsured and who can't pay for decent care. We do have a bare bones community health service that the poor can go to, but Arnold is probably going to cut funds and then we won't even have that.

[bigwillq]

17. Most everyone deserves better health care.

We really need to make it happen soon. I am sick of people suffering because our country, and our government, cannot get their shit together, and that the corporate hacks are really running the nation.

[Dogmudgeon]

18. How personal? Let me count the ways ...

I've had a big hole in my ear and skull from a tumor and surgery I had when I was 18. It required infrequent, but specialized, medical treatment. But in the 1980s, I became "uninsurable" and was never able to get adequate coverage (mostly, NO coverage) except for two years when I worked at a university hospital, and a few months here-and-there.

During the 1990s, the problem became progressively worse. I worked for another (Catholic) hospital that refused to cover the problem and dared me to sue them.

My health finally collapsed in 2002 and I became disabled. It took FIVE YEARS for the state to determine that I was really and truly disabled, then I was able to get state-subsidized coverage. At this point, BOTH ears are now involved, I am unable to walk without a cane, I am in pain 24/7, I will require sophisticated surgery, I have brain damage that also probably led (via the vagus nerve) to atypical super-high blood pressure (like 220/150) and chronic colitis/gastroenteritis, and I will be running up nearly a quarter of a million dollars' of work on the taxpayer's dime over probably the next 18 months.

But if I'd been able to get appropriate treatment throughout the years, I would never have gotten that sick. The only treatment I got was, ironically, from doctor who is a "wingnut" -- his waiting room was stocked full of anti-abortion and socialism-scare literature -- but he treated me without demanding payment. "Pay when you can," he said (See, there are a few decent Republicans out there.)

The rest of the "medical service providers" kept me impoverished. When I was a programmer, I was making $65,000 a year, and gave those bloodsuckers nearly $40,000 of it one year. (That "just pay ten bucks a month and they'll understand" thing is an urban legend.)

If I'd had the presence of mind to have gone to college in Canada, say, at McGill or Laurentian or Simon Frasier, and stayed there, I would also have nearly a million bucks in my bank account, or more likely, have been able to build a middle-class life, buy a house, and afforded to get married to a nice, exotic foreign Canadian girl -- maybe a Quebequer (a Quebequess?) who speaks French and uses shampoo with English directions instead of the other way 'round. So If ObamaCare fails, I will leave -- certainement, bien sûr -- out of necessity, not spite.

You know, as bad as all that sounds, I really don't think I have it so bad. There are other people whose lives are living hell -- can't even walk, are completely blind, have much worse pain than I do, required an ostomy, and have been forced into bankruptcy (I'm sure a few of them will post in this thread, too) -- and some who died for our leaders' worship of the Free Enterprise System.

In America.

This is an intolerable situation. We heavily subsidize the medical industry through our taxes, even before we pay for health insurance and treatment co-payments.

Free Health Care for all, or make the medical world pay its own way entirely. The rest of us will get better treatment from seeing witch doctors.

Pissed-off? You betcha!

--d!
Vos cheveux semblent beaux. Voulez-vous émigrer avec moi ce soir?
< J'(coeur) le Babelfish >

[Mythsaje]

21. Oh, man.. That just sucks.

My sympathies and best wishes with you.

[undeterred]

19. Is it personal and selfish to want to survive?

Why should anyone's motives be questioned?

[Mythsaje]

22. I don't know.

I see that "it's personal" wins by an overwhelming majority so far. I don't have a problem with that. It's just not MY reason for being a loudmouth asshole about it.

[tnlefty]

20. You didn't list an option for me. I'm one of the 150 million

that Baucas's office talks about who is insured. What they won't mention is that BCBS of TN just about bankrupted my family when I was very ill a few years ago.

I don't think that I'm the only person who would gladly run to a public option of coverage if it is fully available without hindrance from the likes of Baucus, and the republicans and fed at the trough dems who know this and don't want it to happen. IMNSHO, for profit health care really sucks.

[Mythsaje]

23. I figured I was probably missing an option or two.

But I wasn't sure what they were.

[Auggie]

25. Same here

I'll gladly forward my current health care premiums AND yearly deductible to a single-payer system if it means I'm protected from bankruptcy.

[seabeyond]

24. not personal. doing fine but think can have better. now....

i also know, who knows about the future and the health care and medical field so fuck up that it can become personal, depending on my and mine family health

[me b zola]

26. Very personal

[Ladyhawk]

27. I have a lot of health problems and CA just cut me off.

I'm losing my counselor and probably some supportive services, too.

I'm hitting a level of depression I haven't been at in four years or so and I'm being hung out to dry.

[tomg]

28. I don't know how to answer this but. . .

I have a very good policy through my job. I teach at a private college in New York where salaries are lower but benefits are very good. ( the Yeshiva decision means we can't unionize but that is a whole other issue) In addition, my wife is a public school teacher who has solid benefits. So we are very well insured.

With that said, we have four sons, three of whom are out on their own ( late 20s). One has a pre-existing condition. The youngest is still at home.

With that said, I completely support single payer. I do not support taxing benefits. For years, we gave up raises during negotiations ( and I worked on the negotiation teams) but always kept benefits. I will gladly give up benefits if it means single payer heath care and real health care reform for everyone.

[Mythsaje]

30. I also oppose taxing benefits.

I see it as a very bad idea.

[proud patriot]

29. I have insurance but it's not enough for my son

He's permantly disabled yet I can't get SSI for him
they keep shutting me down . I've been told I need an
attorney to fight them . Between co pays , the 20% clause
and deductables I fall further in debt every year.

My son has been hospitalized this year already .

[Mythsaje]

31. You should get an attorney...

Seriously. As far as I know SSI attorneys work on contingency and you'll collect everything he would have received since you first filed. It's probably very much worth it, especially considering what you'll need in the future.

[Cairycat]

32. Other - but personal

I have macular degeneration and need about $3K/month treatment to keep from going legally blind. Fortunately, I have insurance through my husband's employer. My employer won't cover me because I'm part time, so if my husband were to lose his job, the alternatives for me are pretty bleak: go blind, or divorce my husband and become destitute so I can go on Medicaid.

Most people who have macular degeneration are covered by Medicare, but I'm only 51. But, I think many people are in the same boat I am - one paycheck and thus one health insurance policy away from a medical disaster.

[Mythsaje]

33. Personal enough...

And another great example why a band-aid won't fix the problem.

Thank you.

[ColbertWatcher]

34. Kick. n/t

[defendandprotect]

37. I had to go with "not really personal" ...but what about my kids?

Sisters, brothers, their kids? New babies being born -- pre-natal care and

delivery?

And, hey, we also need universal health care -- look at all the jobs this stuff

would create!!!

Look how many people are eating processed foods every day cause they don't have

time to cook -- we need government cafeterias with fresh veggies, salads, healthful

foods available cheaply -- eating on the go!

[Mythsaje]

38. Maybe we should open up the college cafeterias?

Expand the hospital cafeterias too?

On second thought, the former tends to be much better than the latter. Nevermind.

[defendandprotect]

39. It was thinking about changing to a Preventive Health Care System . . .

under Single Payer which propelled me along to government food!!!

But, part of the health care system could include healthful food for people --

I am kinda serious about that. Women are generally working and this would provide

many jobs.

You know many of the hospitals here now have MacDonald's!!!!

[Mythsaje]

46. The hospitals have McRipoff's?

Talk about "one-stop shopping." Get your clogged arteries and get 'em fixed in one place. Can't beat that.

[defendandprotect]

52. Yes! Quite unbelievable, isn't it -- !!

[Suich]

40. K & R!

:kick:

[4lbs]

44. Very personal for me. My current health insurance is much higher monthly with less coverage

than it was before.

While I'm against throwing everyone into Medicare, without them deciding if they want to do it, a strong government sponsored public option is what I want.

[Cresent City Kid]

45. I have no insurance

My workplace doesn't offer it, and my wife isn't working. We're both 44. My only choice now is the republican plan: CFI Care, don't get sick, don't get hurt.

[Lady President]

47. None of the above....

I have medical insurance through my employer. It's very expensive, but I'm lucky to have it.

For me, not having guaranteed health care means that I can't have genetic testing. As some background, everyone on one side of my family has skin cancer. This isn't an exaggeration-- everyone. My cousins and I all did prior to hitting 30. One of my cousins works at a cancer research hospital. She had genetic testing and tested positive for the CDKN2A mutation which is linked to high skin cancer rates. My other cousins and I work in the private sector, and we are afraid to risk taking the test for fear that we could someday be tagged with the dreaded "pre-existing condition". Currently, my dermatologist is treating me as if I have the mutation with frequent mole checks, photos of all my moles for later comparison, and removal of anything remotely suspicious. If I tested negative, then I could forgo such aggressive monitoring which would save me a sizable amount of money.

Again, I fully acknowledge that I'm more fortunate than many people to have decent coverage. It just annoys me that I have to avoid a test for fear that I would eventually lose my insurance.

[iris27]

48. FEELS PERSONAL - I have an uncle who DIED as a direct result of lagging, inadequate care

because they knew he did not have health insurance. He was 46. Forty-six is average life expectancy in SOMALIA, for fuck's sake.

This was three years ago, and to this day I cannot visit the hospital where he died and where my mother still works because I do not trust myself not to punch out the doctor who let him die.

[Mythsaje]

49. I hear that. I'd be hard-pressed not to do so myself... n/t

[Vinca]

51. My husband and I are older, self-employed and have pre-existing conditions.

We do not have a diamond mine in the backyard, but it doesn't really matter because big insurance wouldn't sell us a policy at any price.

[POAS]

53. Personal

But you don't really have an option for my case.

I am working and have health care but I am also close to retirement and would like to retire now (age 63) but I cannot get Medicare till 65.

Given that I also have a history of prostate cancer I would not be able to get health insurance even if I could afford it.

Without health care reform I am trapped in my job (if the company survives the current downturn) for another 1.5 years. If the company fails (50/50 chance at this point) I will be without health care and with a chance of a return of my cancer.