Discussion of the Health Care crisis is everywhere! I think if we keep pushing it we could see real change (It’s happened before — look at Social Security and Medicare, those were invented in the last 80 years or so)
From the New York Times (may require registration but, it is free to everyone):
Ms. Readling, a 50-year-old real estate agent, is one of nearly 47 million people in America with no health insurance.
Increasingly, the problem affects middle-class people like Ms. Readling, who said she made about $60,000 last year. As an independent contractor, like many real estate agents, Ms. Readling does not receive health benefits from an employer. She tried to buy a policy in the individual insurance market, but — having had cancer — could not obtain coverage, except at a price exceeding $27,000 a year, which was more than she could pay.
“I don’t know which was worse, being told that I had cancer or finding that I could not get insurance,” Ms. Readling (pronounced RED-ling) said in an interview in her office, near the tree-lined streets and stately old homes of this city in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.
This is quite a story, a nightmare — it sounds like she had healthcare through COBRA and just as that was running out she was diagnosed with cancer. My mom’s a 3-time cancer survivor. So I know from close-up the sort of commitment it takes to recover. I don’t think she would have survived if she was faced with the loss of her insurance coverage at the same time.
And without insurance she certainly wouldn’t have been able to go to the leading hospital for her sort of cancer.
Health Care Quick Links
Tales from FARManor: Universal Healthcare: Necessary but not Sufficient
Mundane Doesn’t Describe It: Healthcare Open Thread
DrSteveB at DailyKos: Universal Health for Insurance Companies (Health Care Thursday)
4 Comments
This is serious to everyone. Nobody wants to handle hospital bills without health insurance. Imagine how much health insurance can reduce our hospital bills. We may not want to get sick but the truth is that we get sick on certain circumstances.
Hi Alex — You’re right, it’s a serious issue. But I have a fear that our leaders are so out of touch — they don’t realize how fragile our situations are.
Others might as well apply for one personally. We can’t just stay put and do nothing if our job doesn’t cover it. That’s if you love your job. Otherwise, quit while you’re ahead.
Hey KB, thanks for the link.
They are out of touch — but I think “Cover Everyone” is going to happen anyway. Not soon enough, and there will undoubtedly be some sop thrown to those poor deserving insurance companies [snark!], but it’s going to happen. I’d say while the next president is in office.