Saturday, September 12, 2009

Hi, my name is TotalLunar Eclipse,

And I am one of millions of hard working people that are uninsured.

Thank you,
TotalLunar Eclipse

10 comments:

Koshari Mahana said...

I am too. Oh the stories I could tell... I'll just say this, healthcare shouldn't be a luxury item.

TotalLunar Eclipse said...

I will say now that I won't jump on a bandwagon because it 'may' offer me a better life. I'm picking through the whole proposal with a fine tooth comb and an objective perspective. Everything I dont understand Im seeking clarification for.

Koshari Mahana said...

Let me know what you find out :) I think no reform bill is going to appeal to everyone 100% and if we wait around for one that does nothing will change - or - if they pass one that is watered down it may only benefit the percent of people that are already happy with their insurance. Time will tell, I think it's mostly out of our hands now anyway.

Koshari Mahana said...

btw... do you have an insurance plan that covers the good people of Steelhead? ;)

TotalLunar Eclipse said...

So far I'm seeking clarification for this phrase.

"Ends discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions. Over the last three years, 12 million people were denied coverage directly or indirectly through high premiums due to a pre-existing condition. Under the President’s plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage for health reasons or risks."

I'm wanting to know their legal definition of 'high premiums' because that little phrasing in IRS code has a meaning in deductions.

We're covered under the Fuzzball rule of health care, 'dont get sick!'

Koshari Mahana said...

Well, what it means to me is what happened to my sister... she had colon cancer, recovered. Then she severed her finger and mangled several others on her table saw. Then she got pneumonia. Then (yes, there is more) she found out that she has degenerative arthritis. Well her insurance company cancelled her policy at this point. When she went to find another company to insure her some gave her a flat out "no" and others said yes but she would have had to pay an ungodly amount of money that only the very wealthy could possibly afford (their customers without pre-existing conditions had a normal price). They did this knowing she couldn't afford it but they could still claim that "no one is denied", because technically they didn't deny her, they just had impossibly high premiums for her.

I think the paragraph you posted says that both will be illegal, jacking up prices due to pre-existing conditions or denying because of them. It may be that a plan is a plan, it costs the same for a particular health care plan (within a particular insurance company) whether you have cancer or don't have cancer etc... Cancer coverage with %500.00 deductible is the same price for all of their customers across the board rather than it costing more for a person that has it or has had it in the past.

That's how I see that paragraph anyway.

TotalLunar Eclipse said...

I understand the concept entirely, but the 'high premiums' gets me. Because in tax code, under an HSA tax law you cant deduct a health insurance if its not 'high premium' and to do so it has to be over $1200 per person per month to be considered 'high premiums.' So... will it be for high premium coverage only that this law is applied to? or all.

I pick through this bill with a fine tooth comb.

Koshari Mahana said...

Ah, I see what you are getting at now. I don't know. Maybe if insurance and health care coverage is revised the taxes that deal with it would have to be revised too. As it is now high premiums are not a reflection of what tax bracket someone is in, they could be poor but have chronic health problems or they could be wealthy and never have been sick ... but have a super insurance policy. Yeah, I think that part would have to be reworked because if it passes, high premiums would be of choice rather than simply from being a 'high risk'.

Sorry for sloppy wording, it's really late and I've not been to bed LOL...

TotalLunar Eclipse said...

I am versed with tax law how they are written so I catch things that sound like loopholes.

Big tax loophole... big tax cuts for the rich called captial gains tax that wont tax their OVERALL gross (even if its not made by just cap gains) over a low tax rate. How evil is that?

I'm ok sacrificing my health for the sake of putting food on the table rather than pay premiums but what if my wife looses coverage? Unacceptable.

Bed sounds good, it sounds comfortable and something I should be doing as well.

Eladrienne Laval said...

It is a horrible feeling to be uninsured. I know that I "ignore" a lot of things when I know something is wrong or even extremely painful just because I know I can't afford to do something about it.

And sometimes, depending upon the insurance, even the insured get screwed. I'll never forget being out in the pouring rain and bitter cold waiting for a nurse friend of my mother's to give me expensive medication for her. She was a cancer patient, so insurance was only covering but so much.

Add to that companies that don't cover one's spouse or children so the amount you are paying is insane and it's just crazy. You should not have to make a choice like that and it is scary.

Decent healthcare should not be a privilege and there are far too many of us out here without it.