Having said this, I will once more say, we have great insurance at the CCO.
This past week, Zeke and Ana, and to a lesser degree, Kelly and I all had the flu (yes, it was probably H1N1, but it's too expensive to confirm the suspicions of the doctors). We are on the mend and all feeling much better.
I will remind you that we have insurance. But not just insurance, but really good Health Care through the CCO, and yet, my family incurred a little over $100 in out of pocket medical expenses NOT including supplemental vitamins, and generic fever reducers, etc., which we also bought.
Now, that may not seem like too much money, but for many that can make or break one's monthly budget...including ours from time to time! But imagine other scenarios that many face:
-not having insurance and getting sick. Unless you're wealthy, at this point you have to debate between receiving care and paying bills.
-having an employer who puts the majority of the cost-sharing on the employee. You've got insurance, but it won't pay anything until you've paid a deductible, and even then you probably have to pay a percentage of the remaining cost of care.
-getting a serious condition, and then being dropped by your health insurance, or not having insurance, but needing it desperately because of a condition...and not being accepted by an insurance company because of that preexisting condition (e.g. pregnancy is often consider a "preexisting condition"; do you know how much a childbirth cost's now-a-days?)
Now, others have some of the above insurance scenarios, and something far worse than the flu comes to your home! We all just had the flu! Not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. No surgery was required, no lifetime medicines prescribed, no hospitalization required, etc. And we still had to pay over $100...and we have insurance!
All this to say, something MUST be done with the current system. I don't want the government to have absolute control over healthcare in the U.S....neither does the government! That has never been proposed as a bill. What is being proposed is the 'radical' idea that 1) We must care for all our citizens' health, 2) employers have a measure of responsibility to their employees regarding this, and 3) Insurance Companies will be accountable to the American people to do what they should instead of what they arbitrarily want.
Between the time I started writing this post, and now :) the House of Representatives passed the H.R. 3962 proposal with an amendment to ensure that the government will not pay for abortions (praise God!). I pray that the Senate will make changes that will make the bill even better, 'cause it's certainly not perfect.
“This bill will get better in the Senate,” said Representative Jim Cooper, a Tennessee Democrat who has been outspoken in his criticism of some provisions of the bill but decided to support it. “If we kill it here, it won’t have a chance to get better.” This is an excerpt from this article.
Pray. Ask God how American Christians should care for others in our nation regarding health care. Read scripture and listen for His voice.
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