H - Healthcare in America

On October 28 I had to have shoulder surgery. Outpatient shoulder surgery. I checked in at 10am, they took me in to the room at noon and woke me up around 4pm. I remember nothing from the time they said we are going to give you two .......

I fell down on December 11, 2010 on ice in my driveway in WV walking the dog. I landed hard and knew I was going to be sore. What I didn't realize is that I would be sore for 10 months. I finally decided to get it looked at in July and by September I had an xray and MRI under my belt. By the way, an MRI with Valium is way better than one without! Anyway the doctor said I had a bone that needed to be "trimmed" and we scheduled it for October 28 - the Friday after a long planned annual golf outing. Not a moment too soon as it turns out because by the time the outing was over, I couldn't move my arm.

So, I have a wonderful health insurance plan. I don't know the legal definition of a "Cadillac Plan" but if this is not it then I don't know what it. My wife and I pay less than $300 a month. We have a deductible of about $2500 and a maximum expense in any given year of $7500. Co-payments are normally 10% except for preventive care which has no co-payment.

For the surgey above, I paid $300 for the doctor in advance, $150 for a sling for my arm and $150 to rent an ice machine/shoulder pack - a great idea and worth every cent. When I checked in to the hospital they charged me $200 ( I thought). When my credit card bill came there was a charge not for $200 but $2000! Naturally I called. I mean it is almost Christmas and I had plans for that credit card. Low and behold, I was told that in fact the surgery (not including the surgeon who I had already paid for) was $29,000 and some change. My first comment was "wow, we really do need Obamacare!" Maybe it was my second comment.

So here is my point for all of you who do not think we need some sort of national health insurance plan. If I did not have this great policy and if my credit card could not have handled the $2000 what would happen? As far as I can tell only two choices are possible. Either I don't get fixed or someone else pays. Since this was elective surgery I suspect it would be the former. But what if I had fallen and broken by shoulder or my back or my neck? My insurance would have protected me. What if I didn't have insurance? What if I couldn't pay the premium because I got laid off during this recession? Do I die? Probably not. I'd get a trip to the hospital, get repaired and be given a bill I have no hope to repay when I checked out. That bill would eventually get written off and the next guy to have surgery who has insurance would get a $29,000 bill for 4 hours of service. If any of you don't think that a fair amount of that bill is to cover the losses that a hospital sees everyday from people with no insurance, then you really need to see me about a bridge I have for sale.

Medical costs are insanely high. Part of it is inflation. Part of it is research. Part of it is crazy malpractice insurance rates. Part of it is people who don't pay.

I can't fix inflation and I don't want to stop research. We can fix insanely high judgements for malpractice and we can fix it for people who don't have coverage. If your workplace doesn't offer insurance, then there should be a publically sponsored policy that you can buy into. If you can't afford the rate, we should use tax dollars to help you until you can. At the end of the day, those tax dollars are going to pay one way or the other. It's just a matter of whether its a surprise or not!

Having a way for the government (and I don't care if it is a state or the federal governement as long as the coverage is consistently good) to help provide this need, this basic human right in my opinion, is why we have government in the first place. Why band together and give government the right to raise an Army to defend us if after the war we don't care if our citizens live or die? It makes no sense.

"We the people" are in this together. Some of us have been blessed, or lucky, or worked really hard or all three. Some of us have not. Even if the government subsidizes a basic minimum coverage it won't be great. But it might keep some kid alive. That kid might work really hard and go to college. He might become a doctor and find a cure for cancer and save us so much money the country gets paid back for his health insurance. Or he might become a soldier and save the lives of 50 comrades. Or he might become a Senator and be the guy or girl who leads them out of the partisan abyss be are in and back to leading our country.

Every time I see a homeless person I know that it is just by the grace of God that it isn't me. Sure I worked hard but I was also given opportunities. Some people are not given those opportunities because of where they are from, where they went to school, their color.

My insurance rates went up this year. I don't care. I can afford it and I hope some of the increase is because of the new requirements brought about by the Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare. If one poor kid or mom or grandfather benefits from my increase then it is worth it to me. People in our country used to look after each other. Even the Bible says that we are our brother's keepers. No one can do it alone. Almost everyone needs a hand sometime. Let's not demonize the poor, uneducated, unemployed or homeless. Let's help them. You'd be surprised at what the payback may end up being in the long run.