Health Care Reform: Yay or Nay

Health care reform is a subject that is near and dear to my heart because I am one of the millions of uninsured people in the US.   Unless you are employed in a full time job with a decent salary, you just can’t afford health insurance and truthfully, I am also aware that you can’t afford not to have it.  I cannot afford to pay over a third of my income for insurance so I don’t go to the doctor.  If an emergency happens, I will just have to deal with it at the time.

Is the new bill a good thing?  I have no idea.  How can you form an opinion on a bill that is over 2000 pages long?  How can you form an opinion on something that has so much mis-information floating around that it is impossible to tell fact from fiction?

My mother and I have this discussion every time we talk.  She is against health care reform.   The reasons that she cites are the exact ones that are supposedly debunked in the Top Five Lies About Obama’s Health Care Reform.  This Newsweek article explains the top 5 objections to the Health Care Reform bill.   If you believe that the bill will offer free coverage to illegal immigrants or cut benefits to the elderly, you should read this article.

On the flip side, CNN Money has an article on The 5 Key Freedoms You Will Lose.  They write that you will eventually lose the right to choose your own coverage or to choose your own doctor.   These are important choices that everyone should be able to make.

So which side is right?  Is Health Care Reform inherently evil or the best thing since sliced bread?  I don’t think that the average American can possibly make an informed decision on that.  The debate is presented by lawyers and politicians who are paid to read the 2000 page bill that has been written in legalese and then interpret it in the way that is most beneficial to their side.   I could sit down and read the bill and know as little when I finished as when I started.

What are the needs of people like me who cannot afford to pay the high costs of health insurance?     I have found various estimates on the average cost of health insurance that range from $4000 per year to $7000 per year.  This ranges from 40% of my income to 70% of my annual income.  It’s not much of a choice.  When I last checked into insurance, the monthly cost was approximately $300 per month and I am a healthy woman in her 50s.  I don’t have any pre existing conditions.  I don’t have diabetes, I have never had cancer, my heart is in great condition and while I am slightly overweight, my cholesteral is within normal limits.  I have never had high blood pressure.   My total health care costs over the last 5 years equal less than $500 and that includes doctors visits and prescriptions.

While I still view health insurance as a necessary evil, I can’t afford to pay more monthly for insurance than I would for a year of expenses.  I would like to have a basic plan for major medical that would cover my hospital bills in the event of an emergency.   I honestly don’t care if I can pick my own doctor or hospital.   I don’t expect Cadillac service on a Yugo budget but I would be happy with some affordable options for hospitalization coverage.

I realize that this article has had more questions than answers.  I think that is the general state of the health care debate now.  I seriously doubt that anyone including the Congress has a clue about the impact of the WHOLE bill.   And I think that because of the complexity of the situation, we should stop and quit trying to rush the solution.  The health care system needs reform but I believe we should be approaching it in smaller,  less complex steps instead of sweeping reform that is bound to fail.

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