Without a doubt America has some of the best health care in the world. But at what price? I’m writing this piece because I am upset at the extraordinary and outrageous increases that the medical insurance companies feel they can impose on subscribers. My experience is with a company called Regence BlueCross BlueShield, or as I now refer to them, Regeance BlueCross BlueSteal. I’ll begin with a chronology of rate increases over the 3 years I have subscribed with them for an individual family plan. In 2007 my plan cost $415 per month. In July of that year it jumped $64 to $479 per month. In July of 2008 it jumped $124 to $603 per month. In July of this year it will jump $119 to $722 per month. So over the course of 3 years our monthly premiums have jumped $307 per month. Now we have a fairly low deductible on this plan with $500 per member or $1500 per family per year but we still pay $30 co-pays when we see the doctor and must pay for any lab tests out of our deductible before the plan pays 70%. So this year calculating $722 per month for the premium and add in say 2 doctors visits per family member (2X$30X4=$240) we end up paying about $8904 per year just for medical insurance. This doesn’t include what we would need to pay if any lab tests needed to be done. No wonder more than 40 million Americansare without health insurance. Who can afford to pay such outrageous rates, especially in the middle of a nationwide recession? And even people who can somehow come up with the money to pay these premiums end up then not being able to afford to go to the doctor, or delay going to the doctor because they know it will cost them another $30 to do so. How much less expensive would health care be if we changed our perspective from one of treating and curing diseases to preventing them in the first place? Where is the preventative care in this country? It seems instead we are more interested in manufacturing the latest diet fad pill, or a new 10 hour erection pill. How did we reach this point where corporate greed outweighs an individuals health? Health care should not be treated as a privilege reserved only for the wealthy. It should be the right of every citizen to afford and receive the health care they need. So what are the answers? Where do we go from here? It will never be an easy answer or solution as long as government and big business stand in the way. The corporate powers of the insurance industry own the politicians, who by the way, have free unlimited health care plans. Maybe if the politicians had to purchase the same plans the rest of us did we would finally see some reasonable options being put together. Personally I think that it will be a long time coming before we see a national single payer health care system in this country as is seen in the majority of the developed nations in the world. I say this primarily because of the stranglehold that the health insurance industry has on Congress. Until Congress can disconnect themselves from the dollars that industry lobbiests line their pockets with we will never see a system that is fair to everyone. But a lot also has to do with the complacency of the American people. Where is the outrage over this injustice? Where is the outrage over any injustice? Have we all just become mindless boob-tube watchers fascinated only with what our favorite celebrity is wearing today, or who the next American idol is going to be? Let’s break these chains that bind us and get involved. If this were France we’d be in the streets throwing molotov cocktails. Health care is not a luxury item. It is a right. Promises of health care reform mean nothing without action.
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