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Now Taping: Why Moms Should Care About Healthcare Reform

by Momversation on August 14, 2009 — Comments (4)

We are pleased to announce that U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York will be joining our Momversation panelists to discuss healthcare reform in Monday's episode! The Senator is welcoming questions and comments and will respond to your queries starting next week!

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4 Comments

christine

Before we delve into this, let me just say: Obama is not proposing socialized medicine nor a single-payer health care system. Fact.

Sorry, wanted to get that out before people cry "socialism!" or "single-payer!"

Anyhoo, my sister was denied a claim for a "pre-existing condition" for her infant son. She was also told by the woman working at the insurance company that they basically deny every major claim simply to make it more difficult for policy holders.

As for me, I was denied every time I tried to buy myself health insurance for pre-existing conditions. They denied me for things such as a prescription for GERD medicine. They looked back over 10 years of history.

The system is broken. We're 37th in the world according to the WHO. We pay tons of money and often wait a long time to see a specialist. Rationing? Care is already rationed. So, let's at least try to fix it rather than let insurance companies run us into the ground. If it doesn't work, we can change it; that's the beauty of our government.

Fri, 2009-08-14 16:37

NJ_2_NorCal_Mom

Something that really concerns me under the current "system" (can we call it that?) is that I am one of the "lucky ones" who "has health insurance" and I can't afford to use it as much as I should.

My employer (a non-profit) covers just me for medical and dental on an HMO plan that has a $40 co-payment per visit. I have to pay for my husband and son to have medical and dental, plus for vision for myself and hubby. And then we get to pay some more when we actually go to the doctor. Our dental plan does not require a co-pay for regular twice-yearly visits. We just pay for stuff we have to get done. The vision plan pays most of a regular visit, but only part of the cost of glasses (frames/lenses). That $40 per visit to the doctor is what gets me.

When I had the flu this past year, right in the middle of the swine flu madness (mine was not swine flu, thanks), I had the President telling me to stay home from work, HR at work docking me pay because I had run out of sick time, and the $40 co-pay looming over me to boot. I did not go to the doctor. Last year, when I lay on the floor struggling to stop coughing and just breathe one time, that $40 visit got me a "there's nothing we can do, go home and rest." For this I paid $40.

And, like I said, I am one of the lucky ones who still has health insurance!!!

So, how are we supposed to expect to stay healthy when the cost of doing so can be so prohibitive. I work in a school, so I am GOING TO get sick. Not much I can do about that. My employer is providing what they can. But here I am, employed full time and college educated, and what does it buy me? Doctor visits I frequently can't afford.

I can't be the only person in this situation.

Sat, 2009-08-15 16:16

mikd

I really don't understand how the US system works... it seems pretty effed-up though, and is actually one major reason why I would not move from Australia to the States with my US citizen husband and future children.

In Aus, a doctors visit is about $60-70, and all Australian's get about $40ish of that back from the government (medicare) automatically. Medicare does not rebate dental or optical visits, which is where private cover comes in. Private costs $200 for a couple, a month. For that we are covered for ambulance, general dental, general hospital, birth related stuff, some optical, and a bunch of other stuff... seems pretty exxy, but claims are never denied. You are covered for certain things, and if you get that surgery/ambulance/glasses, you get a rebate (a certain percentage of the total cost anyway). Pre-existing conditions are ok, you just have to wait a certain amount of time (ie paying $50 into the fund every week for a year) before you can claim on them.

I don't actually know if having private cover is actually worth it here, because you get $ back with medicare in general anyway, and I don't think it's anywhere near as expensive for other stuff... We just bought private health cover in anticipation of having babies in a year-ish, which we will now be covered for, which gets us a private room, own doctor etc etc.

If any Aussies are reading this and I've given the wrong info, please correct me! That's how I understand it works here...

Sun, 2009-08-16 01:56

eliesheva

I'm an American living in Israel with my Australian husband... And honestly, the thought of going back to live in the States with the current system scares me. I don't really get what the current US admin wants to do, but I know between what my Aussie husband has described about his motherland and where I live now, I know I can get taken care of and not think twice.

For me, I think it comes down to me being lazy. My health care has been comfortable so far and hopefully I'll never need to know the true extent of it in bad times... but it's there.

Sun, 2009-08-16 13:13