US Health Scare

While listening to an interview this morning with an Independent congressman from VT, I began to ponder the current "health care crisis" this country is facing. It made me so angry, I wanted to use barbed wire for dental floss. (Thanks Earl Pitts)

It made me think...Who is not insured and why?



I have been uninsured in my lifetime. I was in my 20's and did not think I needed to spend my money on something like that. I learned quickly how wrong I could have been when I had a car wreck that almost killed me. Even though I was insured at that time, I still had to pay about $5000 out of pocket. Shazam, I woke up to the fact that I was not invincable and need health insurance. From both personal experience and from talking to folks in their 20's and even early 30's health insurance at that age is not a primary concern. If you have it, great, if not, "oh well, I'm healthy" seems to be the attitude. This is a choice made by this group.



There are those in our society that could choose to insure themselves but do not because they are capable of paying for their own health care needs. The folks that fall into this category are not insured because they do not need to be. They look at the return on investment and they are better off using Pay as You Go as opposed to paying Blue Cross Blue Shield $3500 a year. These folks are counted as uninsured and in need of insurance by our current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania St. By the way there were 16.6M millionaires reported by Barklay's Wealth in 2007. If 25% of those millionaires were in the group that did not opt for private insurance, that makes 4M folks uninsured in the US. What a shame. 4M uninsured americans, this just should not be.

These decisions by free people in the United States cannot be tolerated. They must be insured by our benevolent federal government and their health care decisions must be micro-managed and their medical information recorded by yet another beurocracy.


Then there are those that do not have health insurance for "affordability" reasons. Part of this is because, many of the policies offered by an employer, when it is offered, is not what many think is worth it. In many companies that do offer Health Insurance, the HR dept. demands things like $25 office visit co-pays, and $10 prescription co-pays, with no limit as to the number of visits allowed per year. Why does someone working need $25 co-pays for dr. visits? If you get a headache, or stomach ache, or snifflly nose, why would you go to the dr. to be told to go get some Tylenol, Pepto-Bismol, or Benedryl. Common sense has left the building when it comes to this stuff. I do not advocate "gutting it out" if you have a ruptured appendix or some other major medical emergency, the result would not be good.



But can we agree that if you are reasonably healthy and historically visit the dr. for an annual check up and when fever or sever injury are involved, that what was once called a Major Medical insurance policy that covers emergency room visits and hospitalization would be the most appropriate?

Can those that are working and contributing to a 401k afford and actually be in better financial shape if they just paid the dr.'s office the $75 office visit fee and the labs?

It is time we take back control of this country and bring it home. While many of our state and local law makers and representatives are not much smarter than your average bear, we can more easily hold them accountable for their stupidity.