Health Care

Unless I find myself near a computer and needing a writing fix, this will be my final entry until late July. Ireland, here we come!

Before we go, however, please indulge me with one last whine. After all, you will be whine free for 20 days.

I am completely disillusioned with our governments carelessness with health care. Rather than write a dissertation on my disappointments, let me just list a few of the frustrations that I have dealt with over the past few years.

• Once declared disabled, a person must wait for 6 months to receive benefits. Remember, our government is the one who determines if a person is disabled. If they are not able to work, then they are not receiving health insurance. If the are not working, they cannot afford health insurance.
• I had a drug induced stent put in after my heart attack, which means I must have certain drugs to keep it from closing up and letting plaque build up again. These drugs, naturally, are not ones the insurance companies care to pay for. My co-pay, monthly, on these drugs is $400. The government allowing drug companies to advertise has to be at least part of the problem of the high cost of drugs.
• COBRA, the law that says companies with 20 or more employees must allow employees 18 months of coverage, after a person voluntarily or involuntarily leave a position, is a great idea. The employee must pay the full cost of this benefit. This is, on paper,terrific, but for a disabled person, the wait for medicare is 24 months. So now Dennis must enroll in a high risk health insurance company for 6 months.
• The government outsources many of the positions of information gathering to companies that do not have the information. Today, for example, I talked to a gentleman with a decidedly foreign accent, from medicare. He actually read to me the very article I was looking at, online, when I called him. Like I have hours and hours to have someone tell me something I already know. Please, someone, just pick up the phone and answer the question.
• It is more cost effective, for individuals, to go to an emergency room and be admitted to the hospital than it is to see a doctor. Every time Dennis has gone to the hospital, every bill has been paid in full, no questions asked. But when we have asked for an out-patient procedure, we have to ask, appeal, re-appeal and then pay the co-payment. Where is preventative care in our current plan?
• It seems that the sicker you are, the older you are, the poorer you are, the more difficult it is to get good care and be treated with respect. How is this situation okay?
• Dennis cannot be home alone. I cannot afford to retire. We pay, out of our own pocket to have someone come to the house and take care of Dennis. Insurance does not help with this. The government does not help with this. No one helps with this.
  

Oh, lucky you, I am tired of whining. Obama, get your butt in gear and begin to fix this. Be careful not to be influenced by the money machines. Listen to your constituency. You could become the most popular, if not the most powerful, president ever.

Until late July,
Ann and Dennis