politics

I just had a quick discussion with my wife and it reminded me why even the insured, especially those with kids with special needs, need health care reform. What most people don't realize is that they are one issue away from being grossly underinsured and needing drastic help with healthcare costs. Here are a few examples we've heard over the past few years.

• Child has developmental delays and requires weekly Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy that show results. Therapy co-pays are $40 per session, so that is $120 per week or $5000-$6000 more annually, not including any doctors visits.
• Child has a tracheostomy, but insurance company only covers 30 suction catheters a month or one a day. As an example of how grossly under covered this is, when our daughter has a cold, she might go through 15-20 in a day. This child's parents have to clean this sterile, disposable medical equipment multiple times a day.
• Child has feeding issues and does not eat anything solid and only drinks a special formula that costs more than $20 a day. However, insurer does not cover the cost of the formula because the child is growing and not failing to thrive.

These are just a few examples of how insurance does not mean your covered. Please add your own examples in the comments.

The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) prohibits the improper use of genetic information in health insurance and employment.

Why do I have such a hard time believing people's motives are so good and in the best interests of the insured in this story via a tweet from 23andMe.

A healthcare industry group (The Care Continuum Alliance or DMAA)

and employer groups are urging for a moratorium on GINA fearing that the law's restrictions on "underwriting" activities will harm enrollment in wellness programs,

A new Quinnipiac University Poll says that 69% of Americans want a government-run health insurance option, while only 28% of the respondents would use it. What is really telling is:

Only 15 percent of voters would be willing to pay $500 to $1,000 more in taxes each year for a health care plan that reduces costs and covers those who don't have health insurance. Another 27 percent would pay less than $500 per year, with 3 percent who would pay $1,000 to $3,000 and 45 percent who don't want to pay additional taxes.

This is interesting for two reasons:

1. The average family with health insurance already pays an extra $1,000 a year in premiums to pay for health care for the uninsured, while the average individual pays an extra $370 according to a report by Families USA.
2. A government-run health insurance option will have "significant price advantages" over private health insurers according to Republican Senator Olympia Snowe and Conservative columnist George Will.

So, in effect a public option would probably reduce costs by insuring the uninsured and forcing private health insurance companies to become more cost competitive. Yet, pollsters are asking questions about paying more in taxes for a public option without debating the fact that costs would likely significantly decrease.

But what about government bureaucrats running health care and getting between you and your doctor? That is already occurring, the bureaucrats are just working at for-profit insurance companies who have already testified before Congress that they would not commit to limiting rescissions to only policyholders who intentionally lie or commit fraud to obtain coverage. A policy where:

an investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.

It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.

Do you really want to trust the private health insurance companies more? They are the ones who

have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released yesterday by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.

The economic stimulus package that just passed the House and Senate includes a 34% increase in funding to 39 billion dollars for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). What is amazing is that

most of the money will go to pay for as many as 15,000 additional grants submitted by scientists at universities across the country.

Congress has passed and President Obama signed the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program or CHIP. CHIP funds health care for families who don't qualify for Medicaid but still can't afford private insurance

A sign name is a sign that someone in the deaf community gives you. These names often reflect the person's character. You cannot give yourself a sign name. A sign name can only be given to you by someone who is Deaf, or Hard of Hearing (i.e. someone from the deaf community).

There are many videos going around of people coming up with sign names for President Obama. Here is one such video. Search YouTube for many more.

Via the LA Times:

Borrowing a community organizing technique, the incoming administration is asking Americans to host meetings to come up with ideas. They'll send discussion packets to anyone who signs up.

Sign up here to host a Health Care Community Discussion anytime from December 15th to 31st. Senator Tom Daschle, the leader of the Transition's Health Policy Team and the prospective HHS Cabinet Secretary , will even choose one discussion to attend in person. You can also directly submit your ideas and thoughts on healthcare to the transition team here

This is just wrong:

The Carleton University Students' Association has voted to drop a cystic fibrosis charity as the beneficiary of its annual Shinearama fundraiser, supporting a motion that argued the disease is not "inclusive" enough.
Cystic fibrosis "has been recently revealed to only affect white people, and primarily men" said the motion read Monday night to student councillors, who voted almost unanimously in favour of it.

A simple web search shows how wrong they are:

Cystic fibrosis is diagnosed in males and females equally.

The University needs to teach these students better research skills or at least introduce them to Google.

Washington Post article with 5 Myths About Our Ailing Health-Care System:

1. America has the best health care in the world.
2. Somebody else is paying for your health insurance.
3. We would save a lot if we could cut the administrative waste of private insurance.
4. Health-care reform is going to cost a bundle.
5. Americans aren't ready for a major overhaul of the health-care system.

When the patients, the doctors and employers big and small are complaining about health insurance, you know there is a problem. And anyone that says otherwise is lying or cannot be trusted with major decisions.

Here are some interesting statistics from the articles:

• 49 percent of primary-care physicians in the U.S. said they'd consider leaving medicine. Many said they are overwhelmed with their practices, not because they have too many patients, but because there's too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.
• GM's healthcare costs in 2008 were expected to be more than $1,900 for each car and truck it builds in the U.S.
• As small businesses begin to receive their annual renewal notices, employers and health-insurance brokers in the South, Midwest and California report noticeably steeper rises. Some premium increases being quoted to employers are double those quoted just a few months ago.
• Only 55 percent of U.S. patients get treatments that scientific studies show to work, such as beta blockers for heart disease, found a 2003 study in The New England Journal of Medicine. One reason is that when insurance is tied to employment, you may have to switch doctors when you change jobs.

The issue is not going away and is also putting an increased burden on employers that makes them less competitive around the world. Therefore, even though you may have good insurance now, it is threatened by the economic downturn.