Op-Ed: My Experience & Why We Need Healthcare Reform A.S.A.P.
Back in April I wrote about how our medical bills were starting to really pile up due to my brush with leukemia, and at that point we were really worried about how much it was all going to add up to. And then as soon as we were getting closer and closer to having everything paid off, I got another surprise – a melanoma on my leg had to be removed and I had to have surgery to have a golf-ball sized hole taken out around the spot. Ka-ching went the register at the Doctor’s office! So, after two major medical issues in less than 12 months, and with health insurance, wanna know how much we have spent of our own money?
$9,235.71
Yep, almost $10,000 of our income has gone to pay of medical bills so far, in addition to the $300+ a month we were paying on our premium. Luckily now we have a great plan through my wife’s work, but prior to September 1 we were paying for our own private insurance. And in order to make it affordable for while we were living in California, we had a very high deductible. But $10,000 is a lot of money for anyone, even for a dual-income household such as ours. So imagine what it would be like for someone without extra income? Or 3 kids to feed? Or a mortgage to pay for? $10,000 is a large chunk of most people’s income, and having to shell out that much money in one year for medical bills could be an incredible hardship. No wonder people lose their homes, their jobs, their marriages, etc. over paying for medical bills. I am not someone who was unhealthy – I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I eat organic foods, I am of “normal” bodymass and I exercise regularly…yet here I am with $10,000 in medical bills to pay nonetheless. This could happen to anyone; I just happen to be able to pay the bills myself without falling behind or losing anything important to me. But many people would not be able to, and this is why our health insurance in this country is such a national embarrassment – the health of our citizens should be of major concern for everyone.
Opponents will say things about the way unhealthy people live costing them more, or scream “socialism” and things like that. But above I pointed out that I am not unhealthy at all – and it still happened to me. If I could not have paid my bills, would I deserve to lose my home? My job? My credit? I don’t think so – this is health we are talking about, not some stupid mistake I made on my own. Every other single industrialized nation on earth has some form or another of universal health care, and it is about time that we step up to prevent disasters from happening to people who cannot pay their bills. I am lucky; I can pay mine. And I know this. But not everyone is this lucky, and not everyone gets away with only having to pay $10,000. Some are up to their eyeballs to the tune of hundreds of thousands in medical bills, which is not right for such a rich nation.
It could happen to anyone, including you, even if you have good insurance.
It is about time we don’t hold health care over people’s heads but rather start making it a priority for everyone, regardless of political affiliation. However we make it work and however it gets done, something needs to give. I was lucky this time…but I may not be next time. You might not be either. And it’s not right that anyone has to worry about how to pay for medical bills in this day and age; I think we can all agree on that.
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A little late to the conversation but..
I really can’t understand people who don’t want the government involved in healthcare – as David pointed out they are involved in a lot of important aspects of our lives so why not healthcare?
Tough Money Love – one financial benefit of government run healthcare is bargaining power with the drug companies – this is why meds are so much cheaper in Canada than the US..
Glblguy – you say you don’t like socialism but you want everyone to chip in and help each other? Isn’t that socialism?
Joshua – you are a f***ing jerk.
Mapgirl – ‘We privatize profits and socialize risk.’ what a great quote!
Thanks 4P, appreciate the comment. The “socialism” argument really gets me every time – we are a socialist nation, its just that no one wants to admit it.
I hate to bring this up but I feel I have to.
Joshua made this comment on how it works in the good ol u.s.:
“I’ve been having some heartburn over the last 3 weeks or so and over the counter stuff just isn’t cutting it for me. I need to go see the doctor and so… ring… “Doctor’s Office”. I’d like the earliest appointment you can provide me. “How does today sound, is 4:30 PM OK?”. Yes, that will work great.
When I arrive they will already have my medical insurance on record. The doctor will see me with a big smile on his face, in the nicest well kept office, with the latest medical gear/machines, and with multiple nurses asking if they can get me water, candy, a magazine, you name it all waiting on me hand and foot.
When I’m done the doctor will prescribe me with a little something (the best money can buy) and electronically send it over to my favorite pharamcy (we have many choices). I’ll pay my little $15 co-pay and be on my over. At the pharmacy I’ll talk to the nice Pharmacist who will tell me everything I need to know about my prescribed medicine and take the time to answer any questions. Normally all my medication is covered and I don’t pay a dime, but this particular one isn’t on “the list” and that’s OK. They have a generic with the exact same makeup (probably made by the exact same company) that I can get for only $2.
Sure sounds like hell to me. You want the goverment to fix what again?”
Sounds dandy…here’s what happened to me while backpacking in Paris, France
Cough cough, I walk in a pharmacy and ask the pharmacist (which is not the same thing as going in a CVS) that I dont feel well and if she knows any good doctors around. She sent me to a doctor, I walked right in his office, told me I had a severe throat infection, took out his little pad and prescribed something. I walked back to the pharmacy got my medicine and was better in a couple of days. How much did I pay? about 20 bucks for everything and they DID have magazines in the waiting room.
Nuder, thank you for the comment and personal reference. I’m glad that you are one of the few who didn’t have to wait weeks or months to get service (especially if you had needed a specialist for something). You were only visiting France and didn’t have to live there.
I pay $0 for my insurance at my current place of employment. At my last two companies I worked for I had to pay some but overall it was about $1,500 or less per year on average for just the premiums.
I’m a middle class earner here in the good ‘ol USA and I pay about 25% income taxes after everything is said and done. However, the people of France have to pay more than half of their total pay every single check and almost 17% in sales tax alone for anything they purchase. In fact, that is so outrageous that the business put the tax into the sales price so people don’t freak out everytime they purchase something. (ref: http://www.americansinfrance.net/MovingPlanner/Taxes_in_France.cfm)
Now, take a look at your next pay check and see how much is being withdrawn. Yes, even here it seems depressing when they take money out of our check, but add it all up. Now if you lived in France and receive the same pay amount what do you think would be left after their taxes?
Really, run the numbers and see just what I mean. Their medical care is not “FREE” as all these uneducated and lazy people on here keep stating. They pay a LOT of money each and every check to go into the doctor and not have to worry about spending a few bucks. It’s so sad how people refuse to do the research before they start asking the government to “give” them more.
In fact, I challenge David to create a new post and find facts that back up his request for our Government to give him his “free” medical care. He won’t, because he can’t.
Nuder – thank you for being a voice of reason. People actually believe that because someone has to wait a few days to see a doctor once in a while that all socialist countries make all their citizens wait like that. It’s an absurd presumption.
Joshua, I won’t write anything per your request, only because I don’t really care for your attitude or your insulting comments, and neither do other people who read this site or have read this post, obviously. There is a difference between having a conversation over disagreements and just plain insulting people. And the minute you did that, you lost all credibility with me and I was done discussing this or anything else with you. And here you are again, “challenging” me. This is the end our our discussion – feel free to continue reading (not sure why you do, though – unless it is just to try to stir up stuff, which to me is not exactly a good way to spend time, but to each their own) and commenting if you wish. Have a great day.
This may sound childish but when you read my previous statement:
“In fact, I challenge David to create a new post and find facts that back up his request for our Government to give him his ‘free’ medical care. He won’t, because he can’t.”
I have to say, “I TOLD YOU SO!”. Anyway, I read this blog because some of the things that David posts are pretty good. I just wish that he would use common sense and facts to make judgements and post about things he can’t truly understand. Hey, pass the glass of Obama cool-aid! Sheesh.
Well, now I understand why Joshua is so out of touch: he doesn’t even have to pay for the insurance he has. No wonder he can’t properly value it.
I hope that he realizes that he is the exception rather than the norm. Many people in the US have no access to insurance at all, or if they do it is simply too expensive (ever seen what COBRA charges?). The vast majority of those who do have insurance pay some amount of it themselves. In my case, I pay 5% from every paycheck towards healthcare that isn’t even that great, considering that if I do get sick I get nickeled and dimed to death. My wife is pregnant and I’m not particularly looking forward to the $1000 co-pay on her upcoming hospital stay.
But what options do I have?
MIT – 50 million Americans don’t have insurance. But hey, screw them – somehow it’s their fault!
Joshua, sorry but you just crossed the line. All comments by you will be deleted if you are insulting other readers as you just did. I can take it; but insulting other readers is unnecessary:
“Notice that I’m doing some considerable rounding to ensure David and his like can keep up with the numbers”
Won’t be tolerated. Comment deleted.
i don’t think i’ve ever seen someone delete a comment because of such a mundane sentence? david i think you should put whatever josh write back up on there because it isn’t that bad and you could have just snipped that part out couldn’t you? this has been a very interesting set of posts by everyone and not being able to read what josh wrote is like reading a whole book and finding that the last couple pages are missing.
can you please keep deletions to a minimum and post whatever else he said back again so we can all read it? thanks david and keep up the good work
Frenchie – Joshua has been commenting for a few weeks insulting my readers and myself. I can take it, that is why I put myself out there – but when it goes beyond that, it’s gone. Its the first comment of his I have deleted, and I will leave all his other ones up, including future ones, if he can make his points without insulting people. Acting superior to others by trying to put them down is not a cool way to get your point across. Hope that makes sense.
In regards to Joshua’s comments:
I don’t remember the last time I had to wait for healthcare.
The couple of times I’ve been to the GP (doctor) recently they offered me same day appointments I couldn’t take due to work. Both times I’ve walked in 5 mins before my appointment time, waited a maximum of 10 minutes, and was in and out quickly with the relevant diagnosis/prescription. The prescription charge is around £7 ($15 or so I think) – which covers *any* medicine prescribed. If the medicine would be cheaper than that over-the-counter you just buy it at the cheaper price. Contraceptives and various other things are free.
“You just told us, in not so direct terms, that your waiting list and medical care rooms aren’t that great. And THAT is why there is private care on the side. For those that manage their money properly.”
No, I didn’t actually. I said “Oh, and for those who don’t like the possible queues for appointments…”. POSSIBLE. I’ve never had a problem with queues for medical treatment. And in regards to the waiting rooms… that was more a sarcastic comment about your need for free coffee. Apparently free coffee makes the extortionate charges okay for you!
Granted, our dental system is having problems at the moment due to a massive lack of staff. However children still get the dental care they need, and if you need urgent care you can get it.
Oh and regarding the taxes on goods in shops… most Europeans would no doubt find it utterly ridiculous that a non-optional tax is added on top of the price listed on the shelf. It just happens to be what you’re used to.
“Their medical care is not “FREE” as all these uneducated and lazy people on here keep stating. They pay a LOT of money each and every check to go into the doctor and not have to worry about spending a few bucks.”
Uneducated and lazy my ass! Nothing like insulting people to get your point across is there?
Actually, I don’t think anyone is under the impression that our healthcare is free. We all know full well our taxes go into it. I’d much rather my tax money go into healthcare for kids than the billions of dollars the American government puts into dropping bombs on people, though
(and it also means that when unemployed because of oooh say… terminal illness… the healthcare IS ‘free’ to user.)
Joshua, I think you’ve proved one thing and one thing only to most of the people here: that you’re a selfish, (and luckily for you) well off, privileged person. Maybe try thinking about somebody else for once.
I have no idea where the random smiley in the middle of ‘terminal illness’ came from. Please ignore
Sarah, if we have learned anything, it’s that Joshua likes to insult people to try to get his point across. And in addition to that, he leaves comments under other names trying to support his other comments. Thanks for taking the time to write your comment out, Sarah, and letting us know of your situation – appreciate it.
[...] from MyTwoDollars wrote a great post asking why the US doesn’t have universal health care – the comments are a great read as well. I too can’t understand why the US doesn’t [...]
Chiming in from that other socialist stronghold, Canada. With regard to Joshua’s great service treating his heartburn; getting an appointment, prescription, and drugs in one day, I found nothing extraordinary about that service at all. This is just typical service that I would expect from our socialized medical system here in Canada.
And as far as paying 50% or more in taxes, last year I had gross income just over $79,000 Canadian and paid $6540.69 in income tax. Additionally, we have a value added tax (13% in Nova Scotia) added to most purchases excluding food, education, and shelter, that I estimate cost me $1500 per year. That is a total of 10.2%.
One caveat; my income tax could have been a fair bit higher if I hadn’t made significant RRSP (retirement) contributions, which are tax deductible. But by a fair bit higher, I mean in the 20-25% range, still nowhere near 50%.
Simple Bachelor, that just sounds horrible. I mean, wow – less than 10% in taxes. And universal health care that works. You socialists are so evil!
Seriously, the stories about how bad universal health care are in other countries remind me of the made up horror stories told at camp. Sure, you might find a few that are actually bad – but I got news for people – there are millions of bad ones here in the “free market”.
So, I wasn’t going to chime in on this again, but I feel a bit compelled. Without giving too much away (I hope), the people I interact with daily have their hands in the middle of this mess. I think that some people have a faulty perspective on this issue, because they are looking at it too closely and need to zoom out a little bit. From the 10K foot level, here is what we have:
1. america has the highest costs (per capita) in the world
2. we have privatized “free market” health care
3. “socialized” health care in other countries works quite well
4. most people are generally uninformed about health
Can I bust some myths? Tort reform (alone) will not solve this problem. Malpractice rates are not high due to some correlation with legal protection, but because the insurance companies can charge what they want. We actually have an absurdly high rate of medical errors in this country (higher, I think, than “socialized medicine” countries). Only recently have hospitals begun releasing this information.
People do indeed die on the streets here, but it’s not always pneumonia. Sometimes it’s MDR TB. In order to be treated at a hospital, a person has to get to the hospital. Then there’s patient compliance with treatment – almost impossible if the patient has no insurance. For that matter, we like to talk about reducing/prohibiting abortion in this country, but the majority of abortions happen amongst people who lack health coverage for birth control.
As for costs and wait in other countries – people always throw around the “you have to wait a month to get an MRI” thing. True and not true. You will not wait that long for an MRI of your head. You will if it is an MRI of your knee. Why? Because, the second is not necessary. In fact, all those unnecessary MRIs are part of why our costs are so high. But, if you really want it done, then you can get private insurance.
And the taxes issue – consider the amount taken out to be equivalent to your health insurance premium being deducted pre-tax. If I make $1600 a month ($10/hr), and 20% comes out in taxes, that’s about $300/month. That is what some people pay in health insurance premiums (not even talking about a deductible). And it guarantees you access to real medical care including prevention and treatment, and not just emergency care. For that matter, it also covers your education.
The only argument against nationalized health care is that the government does a crappy job of administering things. But we’ve got some smart people in this country – surely we can find a way to create oversight and suitable regulation.
Thanks deepali, for that in-depth look. I always appreciate a good comment that hammers home the point!
Thankfully I’m Canadian and don’t have to bother with this nonsense. Misinformation about wait times and taxes is the best naysayers can do? At least I don’t have to worry about coming up with $10k to dig a hole out of my leg EVEN WITH INSURANCE.
Seriously:
1) I don’t understand the fear of “socialism”. Didn’t all that fear of the Reds die with the collapse of communism? Isn’t it time for a more sophisticated understanding of the world? We’re right over the border here in Canada. Come for a visit. I promise I won’t be wearing a furry hat and drinking vodka – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
2) What *are* you paying for? From what I understand, even if you’re able to pay for insurance, you get the privilege to pay more and more and more.
3) Responsibilities. What should your government be responsible for? Clearly your government has some sort of responsibility for education, policing, fire, highways/roads, potable water and other services. I’m not hearing much debate over whether you should have to directly pay a fireman before he puts out the fire to your house.
So why shouldn’t the physical health of an American citizen be covered? Doesn’t it benefit your economy to have healthy productive citizens?
Thank you, ThankfulCanadian, for your insight on this. We are a ridiculous people, for sure!
“Doesn’t anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?”
-kurt.vonnegut-
I just wanted to say that I haven’t read a post that hit this close to home in ages. For being the first post I’ve read on your site, David, you’ve converted me into an RSS reader. There are some extremely enlightening comments on here, and I’m glad that all the commenters from NHS countries chimed in – I have friends from countries with socialist healthcare, and they are generally in and out of the doctor’s office with very little wait. Having been a graduate student here in the US with horrible insurance, and sometimes no insurance, and having to pay $400 a month for privatized sometimes…I’ve had an early lesson at what it means to decline seeing a doctor in the interest of saving money. Think about it. $400 a month for someone making ~$22,000 a year. Thats 22% of your pay for just health insurance – and that doesn’t include the outrageous cost of anything not covered under insurance.
Granted, if someone is lucky enough to be the picture of perfect health, or go directly from their parent’s nurturing care (and full-coverage insurance) to a high-paying job with great benefits, then they probably are a little out of touch with how inadequate our healthcare system is (Joshua).
P.S. Nuder, you rock, almost as much as KV does. Best quote ever.
Thank you so much for your kind words Heather, I sincerely appreciate them. And welcome to My Two Dollars!
The emotional tone on this thread has run pretty high and I’m a little nervous about chiming in, but as much as I don’t want to offend anyone, here goes:
Just because the Soviet Union collapsed under its own weight does not mean that the dream of a socialist Utopia has died. As Winston Churchill once said, the inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of its blessings, the virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of its miseries.
Universal health care ideas are appealing in the way that every Utopian dream is, but they have never worked out as dreamed. Various states in the U.S. have tried various schemes, and each one has lead to higher costs, less choice, fleeing physicians, exploding budgets, more uninsured people and ultimately a quiet abandonment or severe cut-back of the program. (Just last week, I read that Hawaii has abandoned its univesal child health care coverage.) Here’s a good summary of what has happened to the various state programs: http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/Centers/healthcare/policybrief/StateHealthCareReforms.pdf
The countries that hava socialized medicine suffer from a “brain drain” of the top physicians, a lack of medical innovation (easily measurable by issued patents), swelling health care budgets and constant problems with unacceptable wait times, quotas on medical care and huge inconveniences for the health care consumer. When those inconveniences are in waiting time for treatment, they include pain, disability and death. Polling data show that 30% of Canadians are dissatisfied with the health care they themselves receive, compared to only 10% of Americans who are dissatisfied with their own health care. Canadians may be more happy with their “system” in theory, but in practice, they don’t like how it affects them directly. Because it’s simply not as good.
When my sister’s U.S. doctor found a lesion on her lung during a routine chest X-ray, it took about 10 days to get a CT scan of it, consult with the pulmonologist, the oncologist and the surgeon, and have her lung cancer surgery. In Canada, just the wait for access to the the few CT machines would have been several weeks longer, and after that, they’ve been struggling for the last 10 years to bring the wait time in lung cancer cases down to eight weeks from the first visit to the specialist to the surgery. My sister is alive 11 years later. Like David, she paid about $10,000 above her private insurance coverage and maybe above what it would have cost her in Canada.
Maybe she would have survived in Canada too, but maybe those months of waiting would have meant a metastisis to the brain, bones or elsewhere, and three children left without their mother at a young age. And what is the “cost” of weeks of waiting for treatment, knowing that all the while a fatal disease is progressing within you unchecked?
Is it really better to have your life at the mercy of a government bureaucrat with virtually guaranteed life-time employment, than to have your check-book at the mercy of an insurance executive who has to worry every day about balancing enrollments with profits? Neither is an attractive prospect, but if you don’t like how the feds handled Katrina or the mortgage industry, why would you entrust your life to them to save some money?
Our health care system in the US treats the poor and unissured the way that countries with socialized medicine treat everybody. If you believe that an equal sharing of the misery is better than an unequal sharing of the blessings, that is a straightforward choice of values, and I can respect it, but from everything I’ve read, it would be a deception to pretend that most people’s health care in the U.S. would be improved by socialized medicine. It would not be; it will worsen.
And because American medicine has been for the last 30 years or more the engine of innovation and discovery for the whole world, over time, not only Americans’ health care will decline, but so will the rest of the world’s.
But the Utopian dreamers who stifle innovation will escape the blame that should be theirs, because the medicines and techniques that won’t be invented, the lives that would have been saved, the pain and disability that would have been alleviated, will simply never be known.
The reason some people, like me, resist socialism is not because of some left-over fear of a communist bogey-man, but because it always reduces human freedom and over the long-run, increases human suffering, including the economic suffering it most claims to alleviate. The reasons why this noble dream simply doesn’t work out were spelled out clearly back in the 1944 book by Nobel Prize winner Frederich Hayek, called “The Road to Serfdom.” In the years since then, Hayek’s predictive accuracy has proven strong enough that even socialists these days generally know better than to openly advocate for socialism, preferring to call it by euphemisms like “social justice” and “universal health care.”
I already find it necessary to pay private school tuition to educate my children because of the incompetence of the public school educational system, for which I must also pay through my taxes. When they get that right, and can cope adequately with national emergencies like Katrina and 9/11 and the mortgage industry collapse, I’ll give some more thought to whether I want my health care turned over to them as well. For now, though, I can’t think of anything I’d like worse.
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I have $7,000 in med bills between my two teens staring me in the face….and we aren’t done. These last few weeks have been stressful, draining, and frustrating. We are small business owners that have been hit extremely hard by the economy. We make too much to get help. We haven’t been making enough lately to get good affordable health insurance. I check regularly….the latest check…this is the best deal they could offer me….I can pay $497 month and have a $5000 deductible…then they will cover 80% after my deductible is met…so that is $5964 yearly + $5000 = $10,964 yearly to have health insurance. Heck….I can’t afford the that! The last time we had insurance, it started out at around $500 month and gradually increased over 3 years time to over $800 month and we barely used it….never me the deductible any year. ARGHHHH! This is frustrating. Another frustrating thing….when we did have health insurance last we paid twice what we do now (without insurance) for procedures but without insurance, they give you discounts…I’m thankful for that but is it right?? Is that why the insurance rates are so high?? Because you have to pay twice as much for a procedure than if you don’t have insurance? Example: Depo shot on insurance $135 (not covered – I had to pay), Depo shot no insurance $69.