The Mad Rants of an Unconventional Soccer Mom

I was supposed to have some minor surgery earlier this week. It was something that I had put off for a while, but had finally decided that it was best to get it over with. So I scheduled the surgery, did my pre-op interview, and waited for the day to come. A couple of weeks went past and it was getting closer to the day. I went in to complete my final lab work and was informed by the hospital that my insurance company had decided to reject the surgery pre-certification based on location.

That sucked. I had finally mentally prepared myself and resolved to get this over with and the insurance company smacked me down. I have since rescheduled the procedure and now get to play the waiting game for another two weeks.

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Over 47 million Americans right now don’t have any insurance; over nine million of them are children. That’s a staggering number. And even many of us that do have insurance are underinsurance. Most families that are insured have employer-sponsored coverage. Unfortunately, due to raising healthcare cost employers are now passing more of the burden on to families who are experiencing increases in the costs of health insurance, more out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits and skyrocketing prices for prescriptions.

I read these stories in the news how senior citizens in this country, who could once rely on coverage through Medicare, are now faced with paying for their prescriptions or paying their rent thanks to the Bush Administration. In 2003 they began an effort to push Medicare towards privatization and a bill was passed in the Republican controlled Congress that:

• Forced 32.5 million seniors and people with disabilities to pay higher
  premiums and other Medicare costs.
• Dropped coverage for out-of-pocket expenses between $2,250 and $5,100.
• Prevented the federal government from negotiating lower drug costs and does
  nothing to rein in soaring prescription drug prices.
• Threatened the employer-provided drug benefits of millions of
  retirees.

With the presidential elections coming up, I decided to take a look at the “universal” health care plans that Clinton and Obama are proposing…

The Clinton plan would give Americans several options for health insurance. They could keep their current coverage or purchase other coverage through a new Health Choices Menu within the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program. The uninsured, other individuals and businesses could buy coverage through the menu, which also would offer a public plan option. The Obama plan would create a National Health Insurance Exchange for individuals and businesses that want to purchase a private insurance plan or enroll in a new public plan that would be similar to the plan that members of Congress receive.

Both plans would require businesses to provide health insurance to their workers or contribute to the cost of coverage. The Clinton plan would offer tax incentives to small businesses to begin or to continue to offer health insurance. The Obama plan would reimburse employer health plans for a portion of their catastrophic costs if they guarantee the savings are used to reduce the costs of workers' premiums.

Both plans would also prohibit insurers from denying coverage based on applicants' pre-existing health problems; expand the Medicaid program and the children's health insurance program known as SCHIP; give flexibility to states or regions in offering coverage; allow the Medicare program to negotiate on prescription drug prices; and reduce payments to Medicare health maintenance organizations, which some have criticized as excessive.

To improve quality and cut costs, both plans also call for investment in electronic health records, disease prevention strategies, improved management of chronic health problems and independent efforts to guide health care decision-making.

So yes, both plans contain a long list of measures aimed at reducing the cost of health care, improving quality and expanding the availability of affordable coverage. What sets the plans apart is that Clinton would require that everyone obtain coverage through forced “mandates” that they would have pay or be penalized. Obama’s plan would require mandates on the coverage of children and would provide subsidies to those who don’t receive insurance through work and can’t afford it. In other words, even though both plans are very similar and would be a welcome and vast improvement to the current healthcare structure in place in this country now neither is truly “universal”.

I would have liked to see something much more progressive: A single payer healthcare system. Every citizen would be automatically covered, you could seek care from any doctor you prefer, and there would be no fighting with insurance companies. People would be freer to change jobs, and we wouldn’t have so many hard working people bankrupt because of medical bills. Payment for doctors, hospitals and other providers of health care would come from a single fund that would be administered by the government. My choice would be that each state would play a role in overseeing it.

And by the way, McCain does also have a healthcare proposal. In it he proposes eliminating the tax preference employees receive for employer-sponsored coverage, replacing it with a tax credit for health insurance of $2,500 per individual or $5,000 per family. Oh, and his plan will not guarantee coverage. Cancer survivors (like McCain) could not be sure of getting coverage.

To read more on each healthcare proposal you can go to their campaign site:

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/healthcare/