7 Ways Health Reform Is Going to Affect You

Joanne. You are complaining about insurance companies making decisions for you but then you want the government to do those decisions for you. What is the difference for you? Do you think they know better than you?

Cristina Shepard of VA 1:50AM June 11, 2009

Most Latin American countries have ugly universal healthcare systems. Would like to wait a year to get an ear surgery, David? That is what you have to wait in Buenos Aires to get a "sofisticated" year operation. In the meantime, you still have the problem and you are still losing your hearing.

In Italy, a woman has to wait 70 DAYS to get a mammogram done. I get an appointment in 3 days with my CIGNA PPO.

Do you think you are going to have a much better quality, advanced, and cheap service than the one we have now? Keep dreaming.

If you have a heart attack and you are over 50 under Universal healthcare, Good luck in getting treatment.

Cristina Shepard of VA 1:35AM June 11, 2009

Look around at other countries and see their failed National Health Plans, not enough care when you need it and no other choice around. We all know that the rich will get what they need because they can afford it, the poor will get what they need because we will pay for it, and the middle class will struggle, as usual, because the blue collar worker always pays the bill, and is forgotten. This is a disaster in the making, socialized medicine is not the answer, but no one is listening.

D. Carpenter of MN 12:19AM June 11, 2009

According to researchers at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University, in 2007, medical problems and expenses contributed to nearly two-thirds of all bankruptcies in the United States, a jump of nearly 50 percent from 2001, new research has found. Since the data used in the study were collected prior to the current economic downturn, it's likely that the current rate of medical-related bankruptcies is even higher. They randomly surveyed 2,314 bankruptcy filers in early 2007 and found that 77.9 percent of those bankrupted by medical problems had health insurance at the start of the bankrupting illness, including 60 percent who had private coverage.

Most of those bankrupted by medical problems were "solidly middle class" before they suffered financial disaster -- two-thirds were homeowners and three-fifths had gone to college. In many cases, these people were hit at the same time by high medical bills and loss of income as illness forced breadwinners to take time off work. It was common for illness to lead to job loss and the disappearance of work-based health insurance.

The study also found that well-insured families often had to cope with high out-of-pocket medical costs for co-payments, deductibles and uncovered services. Medical bills for medically bankrupt families with private insurance averaged $17,749, compared to $26,971 for the uninsured and $22,568 for those who initially had private coverage but lost it during their illness.

The highest average costs were incurred by people with diabetes ($26,971) and neurological disorders ($34,167), the researchers found.

And according to the study in the August issue of the American Journal of Medicine, which was published online June 4, hospital bills were the largest single expense for about half of all medically bankrupt families, while prescription drugs were the largest expense for 18.6 percent. Unless you are super rich, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, co-payments and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse. And even the best job-based health insurance often vanishes when a prolonged illness causes job loss -- precisely when families need it most. Private health insurance is a defective product, akin to an umbrella that melts in the rain,” We need to rethink health reform. Covering the uninsured isn't enough. Reform also needs to help families who already have insurance by upgrading their coverage and assuring that they never lose it. Only single-payer national health insurance can make universal, comprehensive coverage affordable by saving the hundreds of billions we now waste on insurance overhead and bureaucracy.

Unfortunately, Washington politicians seem ready to cave in to greedy insurance firms and keep them and their counterfeit coverage at the core of our system. Reforms that expand phony insurance -- stripped-down plans riddled with co-payments, deductibles and exclusions -- won't stem the rising tide of medical bankruptcy.

SR of NJ 8:18PM June 10, 2009