I didn’t read all of the comments, but I just wanted to share with you something my mom once told me…

I grew up very aware of my family’s money problems. I was also a kid who wanted my parents to be happy all the time. So when something would go wrong, I would sort of worry about the cost.

My mom said to me when I was about 20 years old, “Katie, it doesn’t matter what happens to you, we will always find a way to pay for whatever it is that you need. Doctors will fix you and we’ll get a bill… and we’ll figure it out. You are the only thing we own outright, and they are not taking you away from us and that’s all that matters.”

(That last sentence should be read with a sarcastic tone, not a serious one.)

It’s a good point, though. It sucks – the position that you and so many other Americans are in (I was in it a few months ago). I was lucky enough to find cheap insurance through Tonik, a division of Blue Shield, but it was only because I’m under 30 and sort of healthy. As someone who is almost always freelance in the TV industry, I am always worried about the health insurance thing. It’s terrible, the way it’s set up here. I lucked into a gig that is giving me decent health insurance right now, but when I’m done with this gig, I’m not sure where it’ll come from next.

Someone once said the stance of the democratic party is simple: our society is only as strong as our weakest member. I don’t know a whole lot about universal health care or health care in general, but enough money is made in this country, if you ask me, to provide health insurance for every American. If I made a ton of money, I’d expect the government to take what they need for reasonable expenses. Health care is the most reasonable expense imaginable, if you ask me.

I wish you and your family luck. I adore your website as well as Heather’s… you are great people. Keep telling yourself what I always tell myself when it comes to things I need but can’t afford: it will work out. It always works out. Somehow.

I’m one of those lucky few Americans who can afford the health plan offered her by her husband’s company. My husband, son and I are on the State of Louisiana’s health insurance plan. I wish you could hear the complaints. People here think that the $400 we pay a month for our family plan is expensive. People obviously don’t know what expensive is.

I’m also lucky that the company that does the TPA for the State has a “family man” as their CEO. The plan we were on (we’ve since changed to another plan within the State) provided no out-of-network benefits. We knew this when we elected the plan; it was cheaper that way. Soon after electing that plan, our son was born with a liver disease. Within a month it was evident that he needed a liver transplant. There was one hospital in our network that does liver transplants, but the doctor who would have performed the surgery had never done one on a tiny infant. The insurance company decided to send us to Nebraska where we would get the best treatment for our son, AND covered it all as if it were in-network. This included the surgery for my husband to donate part of his liver to my son. Our out-of-pocket expenses? Less than $2000.

With all of that said, my husband and I realize that one of us will always have to work for a large company (like the state!). My son’s transplant and all of the treatments that came after that cost our insurance company a bundle. If we worked for a small company, the insurance would no longer be affordable. If we decided to try to get independent benefits, we would be laughed at. But a liver transplant that was performed not quite two years ago is understandable as being “uninsurable”. I get that. Thank God for that group health plan.

One thing I think is good to note to some of your commenters: working for “the man” does not automatically guarantee you health insurance, affordable or otherwise. There is no law that mandates a company must offer health insurance to its employees. If it is offered, you must have at least 75% group participation (at least in Louisiana) to be even CONSIDERED for insurance. THEN, you have to take your industry into consideration. Not only does the health of your group affect your rates, the health of the industry you are in does, too. In other words, if you are a fireman, and the employees at your fire station are in good health, your rates could still go up because the fire fighting industry could be unhealthy as a whole. SUCKS doesn’t it?

Perhaps another thing to note is the fact that an employer holds the reigns in making the health insurance decisions. He wants cheap rates, the health plan is going to have high deductibles and a high out-of-pocket max. He wants lower benefits, the rates are going to be pretty high. So if at renewal time the boss man doesn’t like the high rates, and he and his family are healthy and don’t utilize the plan much, he’ll most probably make the decision to raise the benefits to keep the rates low.

So Jon, my suggestion (and I saw one commenter make the same) is to get an agent. I worked for one until I quit my job to go back to school. I’ve watched him work magic on people I swore would be uninsurable. He’s gotten Blue Cross to insure people at the rates they want with the benefits they want, and be glad to do it. He’s got to be some kind of wizard.

Good luck to you. I’m with you on this fight for more affordable health care for the masses.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that the health services in the U.S. are excellent. The problem is that they’re not accessible to a large amount of the population. It’s not a question of the quality of the care you get, it’s about getting any care at all. And to the person who complained about poor people using the ambulance as a taxi: Guess why they’re not seeing a regular doctor instead?

“You had insurance, you chose to quit. It sucks. I’m truly sorry. Just don’t presume to force the rest of us to pay for your decision.”

It turns out that even without a national health care system, taxpayers already pay for other people to be insured. How? Federal and state governments provide huge subsidies for private firms to provide health insurance in the form of tax deductions. This necessarily means that the government has to make up for these non-trivial revenue losses somehow, most likely by taxing people like you, me, and even Eight Hour Lunch at a higher rate.

So the issue isn’t so much about having “us” pay for “your” health insurance coverage; rather, it’s about whether we can spend what we already are in a better way that ensures more universal coverage and lower health insurance premiums/costs. I wish that people would focus more on this aspect of the health care crisis rather than on arguing about who’s entitled to what or whether I’m going to pay for your gall bladder operation. And of course I wish that people in general had a better understanding of how insurance is supposed to work as well as some of the basic adverse selection issues…

Anyway, sorry for the soapboxing and sorry to hear about your situation. I wish you and your family the best.

Another point Jon raised that’s been ignored in all of the judgmental comments: it’s not just about the ability or *willingness* to fork out some money because you choose not to work for “the man.” It’s also about the fact that insurance companies may deny whomever they wish–it is about profits, as Jon said, and until profit is not a factor in health care, it’s only going to get worse. And then no one, other than the extremely wealthy will have health care. And I suppose that’s all right, because the wealthy really are better people.

I’m willing and able to pay out-of-pocket for individual health insurance–and the fact that I’m willing and able doesn’t make me more deserving, it makes me luckier. Unfortunately, I can’t get individual insurance due to a history of depression (though successfully treated, with a drug that’s generic). And I can’t get COBRA benefits because they’ve expired already (had them for a while). And, guess what? I WORK FOR THE MAN. SEVENTY HOURS A WEEK.

You could tell me that because I decided to go to graduate school and because I decided to adjunct instead of working a nine-five, that I deserve not to have health insurance. You could also tell me that I deserve not to have health insurance because I couldn’t just suck up my depression and had to be a whiny baby and ask for help. But again, telling me so is just a reflection of the fear that it could also be you, and the easiest way to assure yourself that it won’t happen to you is to assure yourself that you’re a better person than the rest of the world. Because better people never suffer.

And I just have to give props to everyone who refuses to remain silent about the crises of our current political and economic system. Complacency has already gotten us into a whole lot of trouble.