Here We Go Again

I had a follow-up visit with my pulmonary specialist the other day. While it looks like I am in remission, there are still cat-scans that need to be done to make sure that nothing new is growing. At the very least, he needs to check the damage from the sarcoidosis, and see if any scars have disappeared, or it they have remained the same. Without insurance it is impossible for me to have this done. And I must have this done every 6 months.

This is not a disease that should be taken lightly. It requires monitoring. How many other people are out there just like me, who need tests and cannot have them done? And that fat tub of lard Limbaugh actually says that “no one is dying because of lack of insurance”. Guess again, Rush, you self-serving blow-hard.

My doctor does not belong to the AMA. He believes it to be a corrupt organization, in bed with the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, and he is right. My doctor also saw me at no charge – twice – due to my lack of insurance. Dean and I were touched by his genuine concern for my health and well-being, and by his dedication to serving and helping others.

Similarly, my plastic surgeon, upon learning that I had no insurance, cut her rate in ½ when she removed the basal cell carcinoma from the end of my nose. She never told me she was doing so – I simply received a bill with a notation on it. This, too, is a caring and dedicated doctor.
I am so very grateful to these two individuals for their help.

But we shouldn’t have to rely on someone actually not being paid for their services. We shouldn’t have to pray and hope that our doctors and hospitals will somehow help us to have the work done that we need in order to stay alive. We shouldn’t have to rely on prayer and hope. There should be affordable insurance for those of us who do not qualify for Medicaid due to ridiculous and antiquated Government guidelines. There should be insurance for those of us who are working for salaries that were barely adequate in 1990. There should be insurance for those of us who are working without any medical benefits being offered.

There should be a public option. Please, if you understand nothing else about it, understand this: we need the public option. Without it, without affordable insurance, people will die. People will go bankrupt. People will be refused care and help and tests that they desperately need because an accountant or a CEO at an insurance company has set the rules.

For those of you fortunate enough to have medical and health care coverage: how is it even remotely ok that you have paid many many dollars to an insurance company and that company gets to decide whether or not it will in turn cover your tests, your surgery?

You know it is not ok. You know it is not right.

Now we’re being told that we may get the public option with states being able to opt out. Why in the name of God would you opt out?

I do not know how this will end. All I know is that I will continue to make my voice heard to affect the end that we all need.

We Brought You In and We Can Take You Out

Here’s what I don’t get. If 65 percent of the public want the public health option, then why is anyone in the Senate voting against it?

When I took Civics in the ninth grade, I learned that it was the duty of the elected official to put the interest of the public before his or her own. (In those days it was always and only “his”, but that’s another blog story.)

I was watching MSNBC last night and felt physically sick listening to Baucus and his lies. He is still insisting that people will be forced to give up their employer-sponsored health insurance in favor of the government plan. No. No. No. How many times does this have to be said? Is this man devious, or merely stupid? In any case, he should be voting the way the people want him to vote, not the way he wants. That is not how it is supposed to work.

Yet it does, time and time and time again.

Why?

Lobbying, for one thing. And why does that exist? Why isn’t it illegal? Does it seem even remotely right to you? And why is it that it is illegal for an insurance company to contribute to the campaign of a state’s insurance commissioner, yet the big companies can give money to senators and congressmen? Everyone of us should be outraged that any elected person can take money from the big corporations. Payola is illegal. Prostitution, except in Nevada, is illegal. And this exactly the same thing. Why do we all turn a blind eye to this moral and outrage? I have more respect for prostitutes.

I voted for Tom Carper. Tom has known me and my family for over 25 years. We met when he lived in a small apartment across the hall from one of my brothers. First name basis. When I phoned his office regarding the public option and left a message with a drone, I actually expected a call back. Cobra had cancelled me and I wanted and needed Tom’s help., desperately. He basically turned it over to an office worker, then sent me a form letter saying “sorry it didn’t work for you”. It was terribly disappointing. A few weeks later, I wrote to Tom concerning the public option, and told him about my situation. It was very similar to the letter I wrote for the fbm.com, and I expected not only a response, but a personal one. I received a form letter e-mail, explaining that he was backing Baucus and what a terrific plan it was.

Tom, as most of us saw last night, ended up voting no on the public option. Then he waffled and voted for Sen. Charles Schumer’s plan. It was better than voting for Baucus, but not enough to save his reputation in my eyes. He sold us out. When is the last time Tom Carper had to decide between buying a coat for the winter, paying the electric bill, or going to a sliding-scale clinic? (Since the Medicaid guidelines are so incredibly unrealistic, anyone making over $900.00 a month would be going to a sliding scale type of pay. That means a person making $900.01 a month would be paying $108.00 for a Boniva pill, for example. A pill, by the way, that lasts exactly one month. And this is a type of medication one needs to be on for the rest of one’s life. Do you think Tom’s wife worries about this kind of thing?)

It was enough for me to not vote for him in the next election. Which is what I believe we all should do, regardless of party affiliation, when it comes to all of our senators. If they prove that they do not have our interests at heart, that they put their own concerns above that of the constituents, if they can be bought by big pharma and other large corporations, then they need to go.

We brought them in and we can take them out by not voting for them in the next election.

Maybe after that happens enough times, we can get back to the way it’s supposed to be.

The public option and me

I have both sarcoidosis and a skin cancer that has to be removed. There is no way that I can do my follow up x rays, and no way that I can afford Boniva to offset the effects of the Prednisone, nor can I have the surgery to remove the cancer. The reason? My Cobra coverage through my former employer was cancelled due to a returned check. When I contacted Ceridian/Cobra/BCBS to explain to them what was happening and request that they redeposit the check, they assured me that there would be no problem. One week later, I was cancelled and told that due to a “federal rule”, they could not redeposit my check, nor do they take debit cards or credit cards, but I was “welcome to get my own Blue Cross Blue Shield coverage, privately”. Oh, really? With what? My unemployment check? Because the guidelines for Medicaid are so antiquated and out of step with the times, I do not qualify for that program. I make too much on unemployment.

My doctor says I cannot wait to have the surgery on my nose, to remove the basal cell carcinoma. Due to the sarcoidosis, I require follow up medical treatment in the form of follow up visits, blood-work, x-rays, and medication. I am still on steroids which leave me vulnerable to a host of infections. I cannot afford my medication. Steroids make it necessary for me to take Boniva, to offset osteoporosis, (a side effect of steroids) and that one pill a month costs $60.00 I can afford to pay for none of these things now.

Even when I had coverage, my deductible was $1200.00. And I had to pay a large piece of my salary for this (Several of my former co-workers took no coverage as they could not afford it and pay their mortgages.). As usual, there were the fights over the “pre-existing condition”. And, if I could afford BCBS privately, that would still be the case. They would refuse the removal of the cancerous tissue, as well as the x-rays, blood-work, etc. for the sarcoidosis. I have to ask this question: isn’t EVERYTHING a pre-existing condition, or else you would not be at the doctor’s office in the first place?

We need the public option. I cannot stress this enough. The Republicans who oppose this bill with their lies and fear-mongering ought to be taken out of office, as they do not serve the people, only themselves. They do not have your best interest at heart. They want to keep the power at any cost, even if that cost includes human lives. If by some chance, they aren't lying, then they are simply too stupid to serve. In fact, someone should drive them home, as they probably do not possess the intelligence to operate a motor vehicle.

There are no "death panels". Read the bill. If you are not intelligent enough to understand that you are being offered counseling to help you make a choice should that need arise, then get someone smarter to read it to you and explain it.

The word "option" means "choice". You have a choice to either stay with the insurance you currently have, or choose a new one. The government is not picking it for you.
To those of you who argue, ineffectively, that the government needs to stay out of your life, and should not be involved in your medical program, I have to ask you: what do you think Medicare is? Does this mean you do not want this program for yourselves when the time comes, or that you do not want it for your elderly parents, grandparents?

To the people who want to “go back to the Constitution as it was written by our forefathers, I have to ask: you don’t want Social Security? Women: you don’t want to vote?

To the Republican congressman who suggested that "neighbors will help neighbors", I have to ask: how? In what way? Is my neighbor going to perform the surgery on my nose? Is the guy across the street going to give me an x-ray? Does someone in my neighborhood manufacture Prednisone or Boniva? Will they trade that for tomatoes from my garden? IS THIS MAN COMPLETELY OUT OF TOUCH? Oh, I just answered my own question.

I know that this form of health care is long overdue, having witnessed my dying father in tears over bills that were not being paid, and coverage that was being refused, having had to pay enormous amounts myself because some accountant with no knowledge whatsoever of health care, medicine, or my body decided we had gone over the "usual and customary". HOW DARE YOU! I believe that my doctor knows better than a CEO any day of the week, what kind of care I need. The CEO's of these companies never have to worry about paying medical bills. Neither do the senators and congresspeople opposing this bill – they have the best health care available at an exceedingly affordable rate.

My story is not the only one like this. There are thousands of us struggling to pay rent, mortgage, and medical bills. We are not "living beyond our means". How much further down would you have me go? I live in a mobile home community. Not a townhouse, not a luxury apartment. We are trying to survive. Without a public health care option, it is an impossible situation.

Elizabeth Sutor