Medical Bullshit!

This is going to be a long one, but it’s something that I think you need to hear. I think this should be shouted from the rooftops, in fact. I am going to lose my health care. You know that if you have read this blog. After McDonald’s announcement that it was going to drop it’s mini-med plans because they couldn’t afford them, I can’t believe you would be surprised. What is shocking is 1. The premium that my senator considers acceptable, 2. The responses received from HHS., and 3. The cost of medicine.

Let’s take these issues one at a time. First, Missouri passed a law stating that insurance companies must provide at least one plan for diabetics. In Missouri this is called the Pool Group. The premium for insurance for myself alone, each month, is $1248.00. The policy also has a $10,000.00 deductible before they start paying for anything. There are no drug coverage’s, but they will sell you a discount card. I don’t know how much you folks make, but I make enough to be considered rich by the government. It’s below $100,000.00/year, but I’m still considered rich and get stuck in the 40% tax bracket. I know that I can’t afford to pay $1248.00/month for health insurance for me alone. If I add my children to it, the amount goes up to more than $1500.00/month. That’s a nice house payment. I talked to an agent who had contacted McCaskill’s office. Their response was “well, they may not like the premium, but the still have access to the insurance don’t they?”. I have received similar responses from that office as well.

So I got mad and said “To Hell with it. Everyone else plays the system, why not me?” and I called Divisions of Social Services, Health and Human Services. I asked them what programs I qualified for since I could not get insurance. She asked me if I made more than $348. I said “per week?” She replied, “No, per month.” I told her “Of course I do, I have a job! Are you kidding me?” Her response was that I would not qualify for Medicaid. She said since I had a job I was obviously not disabled, so I would not qualify for Medicare. I responded “You people say I have to find health insurance. I am an automatic decline for health insurance because I am an insulin dependant diabetic. I don’t qualify for your programs because I am a responsible working citizen. How am I supposed to find health insurance?! You have given me an impossible task!” She replied, “Unless you make less than $348/month, or are disabled, I cannot help you.” So I asked her “So you are telling me, in order to get health care, I am going to have to quit my job, walk away from my house and property, go onto welfare, and THEN I can get healthcare?” She responded “Mam, I am not telling you what to do. If you did that you would qualify for Medicaid and we could help you, but I am not telling you to do that. That is your decision.” In other words yes, that is exactly what they want me to do.

As for the cost of medicine, I think losing your healthcare coverage may be the best thing to happen to America in a long time. Insurance took over our doctor payments and we have been insulated from the actual cost for so long that most of us have no clue how much this crap costs! When my mother in law bought her insulin it was about 40$ a month. My insulin is going to cost me $200/month. WTF? In 20 years it jumped that much? Bullshit! Somebody is screwing the system. We have been out of the loop for way too long. Medicine needs to come down. Some of the BS regulations they put on it that jacks the price up needs to come down. We need to get back in touch with what is going on behind the scenes. If 50% of Americans lose their healthcare coverage, which it looks like they will before Obama’s government run single payer system kicks in, there is going to be a squall like a scalded cat heard across this nation. So yeah, I think this may end up being a good thing.