Health Insurance Rant, Part II

Our health care system is BARBARIC.  And our legislators are doing NOTHING about it.

A while back, I posted my first rant on the health insurance system after my husband's surgery.  Why does the hospital charge $26,000 list price, $6,000 "in-network"price?  One of those numbers is criminal - either the hospital is ripping people off, or the insurance carrier is ripping the hospital off.  Now, though, I wish that were the extent of my problems.

My husband's company is shutting its doors as of 12/31.  This means no employer-sponsored health insurance, but also no COBRA, the usual refuge of between-jobs employees.  You must have a continuing business to have COBRA.  So on top of all the holiday s&%t (covered in my other rants), I'm dealing with Individual Health Insurance.

With Individual Health Insurance, there are only three possible carriers in California - and one does not cover pregnancy at all.  With the other two, you fill out a form with every time you've had a hangnail for the last 20 years, including doctor contact phone and address.  Then you pay ridiculous amounts of money just in case they deign to offer you their pathetic coverage, and you wait.  And wait.  And wait.  Meantime, whichever of the duopoly scam insurance companies you've chosen checks your health records, and if you've had anything more significant than a tummy ache, you're hosed.

Now, I'm not asking for a government handout.  I'm willing to pay for health insurance.  I just can't get it.  And my family is generally pretty healthy.  My friend - a breast cancer survivor - can't get health insurance at all.  None.  Ever.  Forget it.

Hillary Clinton identified this problem in 1993.  But what has our government done about it? Nothing.  John Kerry suggested allowing people to buy into the health care plan that government workers have.  What happened to that?  Nothing.  Now Sacramento has proposed a new way to "solve the problem" by forcing businesses to cover their workers.  But what if you don't have a job?  What if you're self-employed (like me)? 

My breast cancer surviving friend set up a shell corporation (her employer doesn't provide coverage) and is essentially scamming the government to get "employer-sponsored" coverage.  It cost her about $5,000 in legal fees, and of course if she ever gets audited, she's toast.  I'm really hoping, though, that in six months or so we'll be back on another plan through my husband's new company.  I'd rather not spend $5K if I could just get an individual plan.

I WANT to pay someone a FAIR RATE for coverage.  Why can't I?  Why do my tax dollars pay to cover a bunch of JERKS in Sacramento and Washington DC who are too chicken, or too much in the pocket of big business, to do anything?  Part of the problem is that because of Gerrymandering, these people never have to deal with losing their jobs - they just keep getting elected.  They don't know.

So TELL THEM!  Please, anyone reading this post, send a note to US Senators Barbara Boxer (http://tinyurl.com/uvg4j) and Dianne Feinstein (http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html), US Rep. Anna Eshoo (http://tinyurl.com/yxgcdq), State Senator Joe Simitian (http://www.senatorsimitian.com/default1.htm#), and tell them we need a health care solution for everyone, even those without paternalistic employers like the US Government.