$5000

The other day Mom and I discussed health care costs. My dad is having a health scare which means Mom is having a budget scare. We discussed how absolutely disgusted we are by medical care and insurance coverage in this country. My parents shell out major cash for premiums but get nothing in return. Mom's needed to go in for some routine and not so routine testing for months now but she's been putting it off because of the up-front cost. My parents make a decent living and yet...

We had the biggest laugh over the McCain healthcare plan. Oh, sure, give me $5000 to buy insurance. Uh-huh. I'm sorry, folks, but that's impossible. If Dave and I lost his group plan, we'd never get insurance again. NEVER. Dave has fairly well controlled Type II Diabetes and is overweight by, oh, fifteen or twenty pounds. I have PCOS/POF, a mitral valve prolapse, a systolic murmur, and am still overweight (but really working on that.) To me, these things are really minor, but to insurance companies? Yeah. Not so much. The shitty state of my ovaries automatically plunks me into the "rare disorder" category. When you're trying to get health insurance, that's the kiss of death.

Just for shits and giggles, I looked for private health insurance quotes. I nearly fell out of my chair. If you want a reasonable deductible of $1000 per person, you'll pay $463 a month for two healthy people. I'm afraid to even answer the health questionnaire to see what it would cost for not so healthy folks. I do know women in my support group who pay $750-1000 per month just to keep their COBRA plans. Yeah. Digest that. I know one woman who couldn't find insurance for her husband because he weighed 270 some-odd pounds. If you tip the scales at 250 plus, you're pretty much shit-outta-luck.

Oh, and that $463 plan doesn't cover any maternity care. That's zero prenatal visits and no labor and delivery coverage. A few friends have just had babies, and I can tell you from the horror stories I'm hearing that the cost of L&D ain't cheap. I'm talking 10K for a vaginal delivery without drugs and 20K for C-sections. The lack of maternity coverage seems to be a common theme in "affordable" private plans. Because, you know, healthy moms aren't a priority. I mean, really, what the fuck?

Right now, Dave and I pay a few hundred dollars a month for a somewhat useful plan. We have to hit our $1500 per person deductible before we get any coverage. Dave's employer provides half of that in an HSA, and we kick over a percentage of every check--but it's still not enough. We have absolutely no fertility coverage which means all of the tests I need have to be coded very specifically by my doctor's office or else our insurer kicks them back. If I have to do a medicated cycle, I get absolutely no monitoring or med coverage. That's complete and utter bullshit. We've paid our premiums. I should get quality health care. End of story.

The prescription coverage is pretty bad too. Dave would like to try some different diabetes meds but the prices are outrageous. We're talking $1000-$1500 per month. Our insurance doesn't cover them so even though they'd probably keep Dave healthier for longer, they're just out of the question. And that's just fucked up. People shouldn't be priced out of prescriptions.

I just don't get this philosophy of "Oh, hey, it's all right! The market will fix everything." Um, yeah, no. We've had private insurance companies since, what, Nixon and Kaiser and all that, right? If the market hasn't fixed the issue of health care costs in all those years, I think we can safely say it isn't going to any time soon.

Look, I'm not a socialist. When it comes to money, I'm a straight-up fiscal conservative--but that doesn't mean that money should come before the basic human rights of American citizens to have equal access to quality health care. It's a fucking disgrace that people in this country have to file bankruptcy because of medical bills. Or that someone who has paid their premiums for years should be denied coverage because of the cost to the insurance company. Um, that's the whole point of insurance. I pay this money every month just in case something horrific happens to me.

I know this is ranty but I'm just sick to death with hospitals and insurance companies and politicians telling us the system is fine. You know what I say to that? FTP!