my views on health care

This status line has come up on Facebook recently:

“(person’s name) thinks that no one should die because they cannot afford health care, no one should go broke because they get sick, and no one’s child should miss a doctors appointment because it costs to much. If you agree, join us in posting this as your status.”

I want to respond to this statement.

First of all, I would like to see some numbers on this whole dying thing – I’ve never heard of someone dying because they could not afford health care. The hospital cannot refuse to help you based on your ability to pay (granted, that is for emergency care, but still). Now, I have heard of people in countries like England & Sweden dying because they didn’t receive care …

Secondly, why shouldn’t someone go broke because they get sick? Life happens. Do you want everyone else to pay for your car when you get in an accident? How about everyone else paying for you to go to college? I’m still broke because of college. But I don’t think that it is anyone else’s responsibility to pay for that but me. This is one of the biggest reasons in all our years of being unable to pay, we haven’t defaulted on our student loans. If person A doesn’t want person B to go broke because they are sick, person A has the opportunity to help pay for person B’s medical bills. Why do we have to make it a universal thing?? I hate those bumper stickers that say “Health care for Everyone NOW!” I want to ask the person, “so, you wanna give me some money so I can get health insurance?” I’m pretty sure they would say no. It’s really easy to give away someone else’s money.

Thirdly, I totally don’t get the whole children’s health care thing. When Mrs. Clinton was pushing the immunizations for all children back ten years ago, I didn’t understand the problem then. I had doctors and other people telling me, “if you can’t afford to get your baby immunized, there is a clinic (gave me the address) that will do it for FREE (emphasis added).” Now people are saying kids can’t go to the doctor because it is too expensive.
Here are some numbers I found on the DSHS website:
If your family size is one, you can make up to $1,805/mo. or up to $21,660 annually, and your children will qualify for FREE health care.
If your family size is 5, you can make up to $4,299/mo. or $51,580 annually and STILL qualify for FREE health care.
(For each additional family member (after 5), add $624/mo. or $7, 480/year.)
If your family size is one, and you make up to $2,257/mo. or $27,075/year, you qualify for insurance coverage with a $20/mo. premium for each child. Even if your family size is 5, and you make up to $5,373/mo. or $64,475/year, you will still qualify and pay no more than $40/mo.
So, say you still don’t fit into the parameters here. There’s another one – if your family size is one, and you make up to $2,708/mo. or $32,490/annually, your child would qualify. You would have a monthly premium of $30/mo. If you have a bigger family, say, of 5 people, and you made up to $6,448/mo. or $77,370/year … your children would still qualify and you would pay no more than $60/mo.

According to the American Census Bureau, the median income of American families in 2007 was $50,740. So tell me, who can’t afford doctor’s visits for their kids?

I’ll end on a lighter note. On the DSHS website, in the instructions for figuring out if you are eligible for aid, they state, “remember that a pregnant woman counts as two people when determining household size.” :o)