Reform
You didn’t really think I was going to ignore the day’s current events, right? And I’m not here to stir any pots, but I am going to speak frankly. And if that offends you, then please accept my apologies, or don’t, and just stop reading.
Tonight, President Obama delivered a speech about health care reform. Unless you live under a rock or without any communication with the outside world, you know that health care reform has been a hot button issue for quite some time. And I for one, think that’s fantastic.
Do I find it annoying as hell when people distort the truth and think the system is fine? Oh hell yes. But people are talking about it. Stories are being shared and opinions are being voiced. It is because of this dialogue that things are prime for change.
But in this great dialogue, lies are being spread. And not all of them are intentional, to be sure, but there are those who deceive on purpose, those who do it with malicious intent. There are those who will say whatever it takes to get a rise, to make trouble and to stall the efforts of those in power, if for no other reason than because they can.
So much of what I heard and read tonight was things I never dreamed I’d hear.
“What this plan will do is make the insurance you have work better for you. Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.”
You may be blessed to never need to understand this situation. To never have to ask your parents to help you pay for COBRA insurance that will allow you to stay on their plan until you can find someone to insure you. You may never know what it’s like to have to take student health insurance because, frankly, there’s no one else who will give it to you. You may never know what it’s like to try and decide which prescription is most important. You may never know the frustration associated with being denied a service because you need it the most.
And I just don’t get it. Please explain to me how this could possibly be wrong? Don’t we WANT people to be able to get insurance, to be insured? If our founding fathers (that so many conservatives like to cite about this) said that life is an inalienable right, shouldn’t the ability to treat and prolong it be a part of that? Shouldn’t the government have a role in protecting my life? In protecting yours?
“We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of- pocket expenses, because in the United States of America, no one should go broke because they get sick.”
I had a moment of sheer panic on my commute this morning. Yesterday, my doctor ordered 5 MRI studies. 4 of which require contrast. And my insurance, while helpful, is going to require me to pay my deductible plus 10% of the cost of those. Sure, 10% is measly compared to what others have paid, but when you consider that MRIs range from about $1000 to $3000 each, it’s staggering. 1000 to 3000 dollars EACH. And I’m having 5. At best, I’m paying my deductible plus $500 out of pocket, at worst, $1500. Did you know that $1500 is half of our monthly income? I’m paying half of our monthly income for medically necessary tests.
And that $1500 won’t even come close to my out of pocket maximum. Not by a LONG shot. And I don’t have it the worst. Others pay more than I’ll dream of. But this morning, when I sat down to try to decide which MRI I should ask to have held off for the sake of money, I realized just how profoundly broken our system is. No one should be sick a moment longer than they need to because of insurance. No one should have to wait more than 6 weeks to see a physician for a problem that could be something SERIOUS. And no one’s livelihood should be jeopardized by the cost of health care.
Tonight, the president gave me hope. And those in the audience gave me hatred.
In case you haven’t seen/heard/read about the speech tonight, after Obama said,
“Now, there are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.”
which, I’m sorry, should be fucking MUSIC to the ears of conservatives, South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson shouted at the president. He called him a liar. He called the President of the United States a liar.
I don’t even know where to begin here. For one, if ANYONE had the audacity to say that to President Bush while in office, the conservatives would’ve called for his impeachment within moments. And you know what? Despite some of the most fucked up governmental policy, no democrat did that in the 8 years that man was president. Why? Because we’re grown ups. Because representatives and senators are supposed to be adults and educated ones at that. I hope you’re all embarrassed for Joe Wilson tonight. I don’t care if he apologizes 100 times over, the man is an asshole, pure and simple.
Joe Wilson is what is wrong with this country right now. Joe Wilson is the example of choosing to be obstinate. Choosing to be ignorant. You cannot bury your head in the sand anymore. It’s not going to work.
If you want to go have a tea party about health care, go right ahead. But your president, the President of the United States came on television and told you, very plainly, what his health care reform plan is. So before you go write your signs and accuse him of wanting to socialize health care, take a moment and think about what he said.
There can be no more ignorance on this. There are no more misconceptions. There is only intended deceit. If you don’t like the plan, fine. You have that right and you surely have the right to complain about it. But if you choose to disbelieve in what my president, YOUR president said to you tonight, then you may as well pack up and move. Because you’re never going to know a good thing when it comes. Because you’re so wrapped up in hating someone for who they are or for who they beat, that you’ll simply never benefit from it anyway.
Health care reform is happening. You can be a part of the problem or a part of the solution. Choose wisely.
29 Responses to “Reform”
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Welcome! I'm Katie, a 28 year old, full-time graduate student who just happened to have brain surgery in November of 2007 to give my ginormous brain a little more space. This blog chronicles my daily life, from relentless headaches to being a doctor's wife. Sit down, get comfortable and stay for a while.
AMEN. I know to some degree what you’re going through and I couldn’t have said it better. I’m hopeful too. And angry too. And I’m hoping that some of our anger helps turn that hope into a reality. xo
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Hear, hear Katie. I wondered about the costs when I read your new doc had ordered all those tests. It’s scary to have to constantly juggle health expenses and pay them off a little bit at a time for what seems like forever.
I feel renewed to fight harder than ever for this after tonight.
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I agree with all of your thinking on this. what bothers me however is that no one is willing to discuss the fact that this re-written policy that you will get with ne cap and paying for all pre-existing conditions will cost you more. How much? nobody is talking about that. We are leaving it up to the private insurance companies to decide. And since you have insurance already the lower cost “public option” will not be available to you, which means that its rates will not act to keep the priovate rates lower in your case.
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I agree our system is terribly broken. I am still paying hundreds of dollars a month towards bills resulting from a stroke I had while I was pregnant two years ago. I had 80/20 coverage at the time. It is terrible to face the decisions you have to make regarding your upcoming tests. I feel for you, trust me, I feel for me and every other American in this position. The President said himself tonight there were “many important details left to still be worked out”. It is partially those details that gravely concern me. I also fear the quality of our care will severely decline. As for waiting 6 weeks to see a doctor you really need to see? Think about it, has anything the government has taken control of ever became a shorter wait time? Ever? Look at other countries around the world with government run health care, one of the staples is extended waits to see physicians, especially specialists. This is exactly what I mean when I say I fear our quality of care will decline. Not to mention there will be many more people insured and seeking care so doctors will be in even more demand, their time becoming even more stretched. I believe it is an atrocity that millions are uninsured and do not have access to quality health care in America. I am all for changing the system but I feel a complete shift to a government run system is a step in the wrong direction.
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Katie Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
Muse:
But see, here’s the thing, it’s not government run health care. It’s government having a hand in and offering a public option in health care. There is a difference. I don’t see how the government requiring people to be insured is going to make my wait at the doctor longer. It might not make it shorter either, but that’s not the end of the universe. We’re not socializing medicine, we’re reforming it within our democracy.
There is a middle ground between privatized and government run health care. That’s what we need. That’s what it seems the president is striving for.
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Extremely well said. I went without for far too long and I never want my children to know the pain, stress, and embarrassment of having to go without.
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This.
I’ll be writing my own post tomorrow when I’m hopefully well enough to sit up for more than five minutes at a time, but for now, I’ll be sending people here because you’re saying what I’m thinking.
It’s shameful that we are one of the most developed nations in this country and yet people have to struggle to figure out how to pay for necessary care or guess which medications they will or won’t use.
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What is insane about this particular issue—that of Obama being called a “Liar” for saying that illegals will not be covered by the health care reform currently under consideration—is that people, including this SC Representative, keep on conflating “foreign-born non-citizens” with “illegal immigrants”.
As a venn diagram, it would show “foreign-born non-citizens” and “illegal immigrants” as two slightly overlapping circles. They are not the same circle. Here is an instance of them being mistaken for the same circle:
http://themoderatevoice.com/44210/those-forked-tongue-democrats-how-many-uninsured/
(paragraph five of the original text.)
What these people are forgetting is that it is possible to have a foreign-born non-citizen who is LEGALLY in America: Me. I am a green-card holder, a foreign-born citizen, married to an natural-born American citizen.
If you want to look at the Census Bureau’s report, from whence this statistical reference to “foreign-born, not a citizen” originates, it’s here: http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf , page 22 of the report, page 30 of the pdf.
Obama was called a liar for telling the truth. Hmmm.
Also, and I should have said this first, I’m so sorry for your medical situation. You should not have to be in it; it’s not fair, it’s not right. I’m sorry.
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YES, Katie!!!! YES!!
Your experience is sadly not unusual. I am so excited that this reform is happening. That the people I care about will finally be able to be cared for medically without falling apart financially.
xoxo
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This post came on a day when I was called by my doctor to tell me he can’t see me for my impending pregnancy, the one he helped achieve, because my crappy insurance and the hospital he has priveleges at are feuding and no longer work together. So now the hospital that I worked at for 4 years cannot be the hospital I give birth in and I have to find another ob-gyn in the spur of the moment. The system is broken and you have eloquently stayed why.
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I could have written this post but substituted my medical problems for yours. Or more meaningfully, my daughter’s. We’ve been in the position where we had to get help to pay for COBRA because no other insurance would cover my BABY. My tiny child who, through no fault of her own, was born early and had medical issues because of it. I used to wake up in the middle of the night in fear that our water or power would be shut off that day because I couldn’t afford that bill because EVERY LAST PENNY went to our health insurance. I would battle with our insurance daily – they were constantly looking for reasons to drop us from their plan. And the sicker thing? After my child died, they stopped trying to drop us. We were a much better risk for them without her.
The system is broken. ANYTHING is better. Anything.
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Right on, girl. I am so tired of the lies and unreasoned rhetoric being shouted against the President’s reform plan – things that DON’T arise out of a genuine rejection of ideas, but rather out of a rejection of a person. It’s personal – and it shouldn’t be.
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Just to set one thing straight. Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio gave a speech to Congress on 6/9/08 moving to Impeach President Bush. It has nothing to do with the health care debate, but I just wanted to point out the truth about one of your points.
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Katie Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Carol-
How is that the truth to what I said? Did that Senator shout to impeach him in the middle of a public address? It sounds to me like a senator went through the correct channels to discover whether (that) the president had done something wrong. If this senator wanted to move to impeach Obama during a meeting of congress I’d strongly disagree, but I wouldn’t admonish him.
I think there’s a distinction you’re missing. And if you don’t think that that Representative’s outburst was inappropriate than you and I are simply not going to see eye to eye on this one.
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You’ll hear nothing but applause from me on the issue.
As a fun insurance horror story, here’s one: Two years ago, my parents were under the impression that they still had insurance, and they were so bold as to use it. A few months later, they got a letter in the mail saying that it was cancelled, and it had been cancelled since a month before they had all the medical issues. Therefore, they were not paying the claims. The bills rolled in, my parents sunk deeper, and finally they had to admit defeat and file bankruptcy.
To my parents, that was a fail because they had worked hard all their lives and prided themselves on always having their bills paid. This wiped them out. They were humiliated. They’re doing okay now, but the insurance they do have stinks and will rarely cover what it needs to.
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I think we need reform and we need it badly. I paid ridiculous amounts for private insurance during law school, only to have a bout of food poisoning/dehydration that sent me to the ER denied because it was related to a “pre-existing condition” of infectious colitis. Anyone with a brain knows that while they both deal with the stomach/digestion they are not remotely related. Mind boggling.
A few thoughts:
- Joe Wilson’s inappropriate sound bite should be run, over & over, by anyone who runs against him during elections. Just to remind the voters what an embarassment he is to his state & political party. Any Republican with a brain will distance themselves from him quickly.
- Obama is caving on tort reform. FASCINATING. I attended a breakfast with him & 20 other people a year ago, 5 of them some of the top tort attorneys in the country. He PROMISED as personal friend’s that he’d never support tort reform. Ahh politics. (That isn’t a pro or anti Obama or tort reform comment, just a personal observation that reminds me that dude, poltics is a tangled web of promises, both broken and kept.)
- I’m also appalled that people are so “shocked and disgusted” that insurance companies care about one thing, the bottom dollar. This is a capitalistic society & they are for-profit corporations. You are as much a cog in the wheel to them that you are to your cell phone provider. As humans we expect them to be kind & compassionate but they are businesses that care about their bottom dollar, just like every other business out there. Your insurance company isn’t a not-for-profit & it isn’t Nordstrom. QUIT BEING SURPRISED.
- Medicare & Medicaid are two of the most poorly run government programs in our country. I really, really hope that reform also means fixing the systems that exist rather than piggy-backing off an already broken model (or two).
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Carol:
I think that you might have mis-read Katie’s comments regarding impeachment/Bush. I think her point is that Republican leaders would have called for a Democratic Congressman’s impeachment had they yelled “liar” to Bush during a presidential address, not about people calling for Bush’s impeachment. Please, correct me if I’m wrong.
That said, Harry Reid did call Bush a “loser” on the floor- just goes to show that people can be disrespectful of the office on both sides and that people forget their basic manners in appalling ways.
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I could not believe he yelled that to the President! Noone should disrespect the President of The United States like that no matter what they think about him/her. He even embarrassed other Republicans terribly! Well written points Katie!
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I am Canadian, but I live here and pay taxes here. I’m a LEGAL immigrant. I think the majority of insurnance company executives should be jailed for crimes against humanity. I would trade any day for the simple incompetence of the governments hand, if I could get rid of the insurance companies greedy profit making and deliberate attempts to not give me the benefits that I paid for. I certainly don’t want right wing nut jobs who believe in death panels to have any say in my health care.
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I support everything you’ve said. I’ve had health insurance my entire life and truly have never had to worry. But, when my husband was laid off last year and we were told that our Cobra premiums were going to be $1300 PER MONTH for a family. A family without income. And sure, we have a support system and people who would never let us end up on the street, but we’re lucky. Exceedingly so.
And when did it become acceptable to not show respect for THE PRESIDENT? When did it become okay for us to tell our children that it’s not a valuable use of their time to listen to the President of the United States speak directly to them?
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I don’t agree with all your either/or ultimatums and assertions, but I 100% feel your frustration, and can completely understand what would drive you to extremes, even if you weren’t facing these medical issues.
We’ll get there, someday, somehow –all of us whether we like it or not– and we’ll be so much better off for it.
Meanwhile, I wish you the best of luck in finding a way to get through this without being too much worse off financially and otherwise. You’re an inspiration!
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Katie:
I agree with you on so many levels. Truly. And I hope and, more importantly, pray that you’re right in your trust. IF the healthcare plan proposed matches the things President Obama said last night, I would applaud both it and him. I want all those same things. I mean, come on, with all my cancers do you think I wouldn’t be for the end of pre-existing conditions clauses???
Here’s my problem. I did not read the entire plan as proposed previously, but I did read a lot of it. And, with the possibility that I’m an idiot being very great and perhaps misinterpreted what I read, the plan as written does not say anything even close to what Obama said last night. That’s what got me so upset to begin with.
I voted for Obama because I believed in him and in the changes he proposed. I also believed in the plan that he proposed last night.
I just don’t believe in the plan I read. And the difference between the two is what frightens me so much.
Believe me, you deserve quality healthcare at reasonable prices. You deserve to be seen without having to wait six weeks. You deserve all the things I have in my healthcare that I don’t want to lose. I WANT you and others like you to have all those things and more.
I just want the choice to keep the things I already have in my insurance. And that was not my interpretation of the plan I read.
I know I haven’t heard from you after running my diatribe on healthcare–not even when I posted that for the first time in five and a half years there is no noticeable cancer in my body– and the thought that you have perhaps written me off has bothered me more than I can articulate. I suspect that my strong stand against the proposed plan severed what I thought was a loving and supportive relationship. I just wish you could understand who I am and what I hold dear. If you did, you would know that I would be the first person to fight FOR equality for all people to receive quality healthcare.
And YOU would be at the top of my list.
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Here’s what I would tell my students on the first day of school about respect and authority. I told them that I knew I had to earn their respect, and until that was accomplished, I expected them to show common courtesy to me and others during the process. If you can’t respect the person in authority, then respect the position of authority.
And I really appreciated Obama’s remarks at Ted Kennedy’s funeral. He told how Kennedy could keep from taking or becoming personal in his differences with those he disagreed with. They could disagree and still be friends.
That is what saddens me the most – the venom that spews from the dyed-in-the wool on BOTH sides. Its very disheartening.
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Katie-
I’m sincerely sorry if I upset or offended you in any way. I misinterpreted your comments about Bush and impeachment to mean that NO Democrat had ever tried to impeach Bush during his 8 years in office. I was simply correcting that point. Again, my apologies, and I respectfully ask that you forgive me. Be well.
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Katie Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Carol- you have nothing to be sorry for. We were miscommunicating. And Daisy totally proved that my assumption was wrong too. So I’m sorry for my morning alter-ego being so bitchy. I don’t get morning sickness, I get morning bitchiness and this morning I should’ve dialed it back. Sorry.
Sue- Check your email right. this. second.
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Guys, come on! Democrats booed and heckled Bush in 2005 during his State of the Union speech. (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/09/10/flashback_democrats_boo_bush_at_2005_state_of_the_union.html)
Where was all the outrage about that? When Bush was president, so many congressmen, news anchors and radio hosts bashed him and said things that were disgusting. However, no one said a thing about that and how it was disrespectful.
Also, how do you know that Obama is telling the truth about not letting illegal aliens be covered by this new healthcare plan? Please read this before you make your decision: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/10/taking_liberties/entry5301652.shtml
Sure, I don’t think it was appropriate or mature to yell out “you lie” during his speech. However, I think it is unbelievable that Wilson is getting hell for it when he was telling the TRUTH and the president is not.
Katie, I love you and I love your blog. You and I will never agree on politics and I understand that. I will always read your blog because I do like to hear opinions that are different from my own. I just wanted you to know that.
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You can’t see me and I’m reading this a few days later but I stood up at my computer and clapped for what you wrote which brought my husband in to read and thus he clapped. I don’t have the words to express my total disgust at the outcry lf “you lie” during the President’s speech. Coming from a military standpoint, this same man served in the Armed Forces and if he would have ever said that “you lie” to his commander, it would have been the end of his military career. Thanks for your post.
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I admit that I didn’t get to see the speech, but I am disgusted that Wilson even dared to say such a thing. We have a long way to go.
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Katie,
I just came across your blog. As a law student and a poli sci major I had to click the politics link. I was so happy to see a good thoughtful post about Healthcare Reform. I am just concerned that the speech wont live up to the bill. Yes, healthcare REALLY needs an overhaul. Preexisting conditions shouldnt disqualify you, typos shouldnt disqualify you and no one should go bankrupt to pay for their health. We need a public OPTION (note that it isnt a requirement as some Repubs would like us to think) to compete with private insurance. My qualms are with the current attacks on women’s health. The resent “guidelines” for breast cancer and the new suggestions for cervical cancer. The refusal of allowing a woman to PURCHASE an addition to her insurance that would cover abortions (if she is using the govt plan or even uses credits from the govt plan) makes me disheartened and puts me in the terrible spot of being against this bill (Well both of them actually). We, as Americans, deserve better. And we, as women, shouldnt have to back peddle to get healthcare reform. We deserve better.
Keep writing!
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