LETTER TO EDITOR: The Government Makes Me Buy Heath Insurance.

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LETTER TO EDITOR: The Government Makes Me Buy Heath Insurance
By Revenue Jerry Wirth
So i have been lying here in a hospital room thinking while my wife recovers from surgery to remove a 50 pound ovarian cyst. The government makes me buy heath insurance. Through the small business market place insurance would cost me $2,000 a month per family. Therefore, I purchase our insurance off the individual market place.  It is still expensive, but  because of my income the government, other tax payers, subsidizes a good portion of it.

However, because my wife’s surgery required a specialist, and he was not in my insurance net work, we are essentially uninsured for a catastrophic procedure to save her life and will be liable for tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.

But, had I chosen to pay the fine and go uninsured, emergency Medicaid would have likely kicked in and paid the bill. So because I did what the government told me I must do, I am essentially uninsured and liable for a large debt while paying for insurance.  I am sure that eventually some of the cost will be covered, but I am most likely going to be liable for tens of thousands of dollars over my deductible and have no voice in the negotiations.

 In my opinion, there should be no networks, insurance should cross state lines, and each person should own there individual or family policy. I want neither corporations nor the government making healthcare decisions for me.

17 COMMENTS

  1. Contact the hospital that your wife is receiving care at. Most have a sliding scale that will help defray costs. When you receive the bill, call the billing department and just ask if there is a way they can help. I’ve never met an operator at either local facility that was unable or unwilling to help, and most will go above and beyond to make sure they are doing the most they can for you. Beyond that, there are several local resources that you can reach out to. Call 211 (United Way) and ask for organizations that can offer help in your situation.
    It doesn’t answer the insurance debacle, but at least it’s something. As far as the insurance – speaking as someone who had to contemplate divorce (to be able to afford market place insurance), whose spouse had to drop their employer sponsored insurance because it was eating up well over half their pay (and increasing every 12 months), and whose 94 year old grandmother is paying for maternity care – well, there is a *lot* of change that needs to happen.

    • Thanks, I am sure that in the end it will all work out. I watched my wife literally shake and vomit from the unnecessary stress of dealing with insurance on top of what was a very stressful condition.

  2. We need single payer health insurance like the rest of the civilized world enjoys. Why keep paying millions in salary to a CEO of an insurance company? It makes no sense to hire someone to sit in the examining room with us telling the doctor what treatment they will authorize and to do it on the cheap.

    • I also predict that for better or worse, and I think worse, we will go to a govi-care system. Just keep in mind that your health care will be controlled by a government holding the largest debt the world has ever seen. No chance of a problem in that. 🙂

  3. This is a prime example of why I never voted abortion, guns or hating blacks and gays. Because there are so many things way more important than those issues.

    But to each their own.

    This situation never would have happened in Canada because even though you may have to wait longer than you want to for a knee replacement or something not life threatening, this situation would go to the top of the list to be taken care of.

    And no bankruptcy would ever be involved because everyone’s taxes chips in to make sure that doesn’t happen. I was at a resort up there a few years ago and the owner told me that although he had to pay more taxes than someone else may pay, he wouldn’t trade their health care system for any other.

    And just like our Medicare system, 72% of the people up there like their system also.

    About a month ago I watched a town hall with Paul Ryan and a man stood up and said, “I’ve been a Republican all my life but thank God for Obama or I wouldn’t be alive today.” Stories abound on both sides.

    Yes sir, health care systems are complicated. Matter of fact, the single payer Paul always champions has one problem, 47% of the American people don’t have the money in their possession to replace a refrigerator if it quits working, and Medicare isn’t cheap. And the Republican Party does not believe in the progressive taxation system to implement it.

    So today I’m a Republican, “I’ve got mine, to Hell with everyone else.”

    After all, if health care is important to you, you need to start voting like it….

      • I stayed dizzy half of my life paying higher premiums to help cover the cost of uninsured and under-insured people Enoch. But today my single payer government run Medicare plan has made my dizziness a thing of the past.

        We are the odd man out when it comes to advanced countries health care systems in the world and this is the result;

        http://www.conferenceboard.ca/hcp/details/health/life-expectancy.aspx

        Naturally the national debt is a big concern of mine so Canada’s cost per individual being half of ours no doubt has a lot to do with the wait times up yonder but something must give somewhere and I’m not impressed by kicking 24 million Americans back out of the market they just accessed like I see in the works today.

        If you are willing to run down other countries health care systems whose total results are more impressive than ours, have at it. In the mean time I wish you any luck there is available.

        You’re obviously going to need it….

        • Now other people are getting dizzy paying for your health care. And if it is so great why has with more insured rates been sky rocketing?

          BTW, if you are solely relying on your single payer Medicare, good luck to you also. 🙂

          • Got lucky and the insurance covered the surgery. Several calls may have helped the luck.

            The ACA has shifted some cost, but it has extended nothimg but higher cost and debt. I didn’t vote to bankrupt it. It’s doing that all by itself.

          • “Got lucky and the insurance covered the surgery”

            That’s all I care about. The rest of your post can settle in the dust bin of history.

            I’m not as religious as you are but I’m going to thank what I believe in that it turned out this way for you.

            But God bless your wife and I wish her the very best.

            Period

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