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Is healthcare reform or health insurance making you sick?
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The healthcare reform debate is getting hot and heavy, but are people taking it as personally as they should? I feel that I have to tell my own story so that everyone who opposes the issue will gain new understanding for my support.
The need for this program is much greater than most people think, or are willing to admit. Everyone is against healthcare reform until they, or a member of their family becomes sick or has a serious, life altering injury. I am one of those citizens who have a pre-existing condition (it is not cancer, or another life threatening disease), but according to the insurance companies, enough of a condition for ALL of the insurance companies to deny me coverage.
When my husband lost his job in '05, we spent weeks trying to find coverage for our family that would be less expensive than the $1300 a month for COBRA we would have to pay. Obviously, since I am a stay-at-home-mom and my husband’s income was a thing of the past, we couldn’t afford $1300 a month for insurance. Luckily, I was able to get my two sons and my husband covered for about $450 a month, but no one, (not one single insurance company), would cover me. It was the scariest situation with which our family has ever been faced. So ultimately, we had to keep paying the COBRA price despite the cost, just so I would be covered. It made our already difficult financial situation even worse.
As a result, we now live in fear that our current insurer could drop me at any time. Currently, insurance companies are searching high and low for any reason at all to drop people from their current coverage. ABC news recently reported that retired insurance executive Wendell Potter said, “Dumping a small number of enrollees can have a big effect on the bottom line.” And when three executives of insurance companies testified before congress about these practices, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said, “These practices reveal that when an insurance company receives a claim for an expensive, life-saving treatment, some of them will look for a way, any way, to avoid having to pay for it.” Karen Ignagni, the president of the health insurance company lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans wrote, “In a reformed health care system, individuals and families will never again have to worry that they may lose coverage on the basis of their medical history.”
The financial stability of my family is at risk because of the real possibility of my coverage getting canceled. Not only that, if my husband were to lose his job again, I would simply be out of luck. No one wants to live with that fear, nor should they. So think about your family, the people you love, and if they will be protected when they need it. Believe me, once something happens, it'll be too late.
If insurance companies were required to offer coverage to people with pre-existing conditions one of the reasons for healthcare reform would disappear. But, they are not required to do so, and they have stated repeatedly that they will not change that policy. My hope is that healthcare reform will give the insurance companies REAL competition, and will force them to look deeply into their policies, which damage American families. If a government option is available to people with pre-existing conditions, and at a competitive price, believe me, the insurance companies will soon offer the same option. After all, it’s about the all-mighty dollar for the insurance companies, not our country’s health. This reform might be just what the doctor ordered, and the insurance companies might get their shot, right where it hurts.
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