Health Care Reform Now!

Republicans and Democrats agree, our healthcare system needs an over haul. Since I’m on a limited income due to a permanent disability, I concur. When we stare at individual cases, the need for healthcare reform is even more striking.

For 28 years, as a tenured teacher, I had health care insurance. After I suffered from a severe hearing loss, I couldn’t comprehend the voices of my students, so I resigned. After COBRA expired, so did affordable health insurance. When I sought a new policy, no one wanted to cover me due to my “pre-existing condition.” Eventually, I found a low quality policy. It was better than nothing.

Last spring my doctor suggested I receive a flu vaccine. Two weeks after the inoculation I battled nasal drip, a sore throat, and cough. Since I had planned a trip to visit my daughter, I decided to call on the urgent care office. I didn’t want to infect my daughter nor the passengers on the plane with my illness. Since Urgent Care was closed, an employee sent me to Emergency Care. There I was treated quickly, given a prescription for an antibiotic, and released. If the visit with the doctor lasted five minutes, it took a lot.

I was charged $180.00—a bit of an extravagant fee, but I paid it. Weeks after returning from my trip, I received an additional bill for $215. I was informed that the doctor earned $75 for his services and the health provider received the remaining $320—obvious highway robbery. First, they gave me the flu and then charged me $395 to cure it. Nice racket! (I wonder what the federal penalty for racketeering is?)

There is a way out of this mess. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has the best- constructed health-care bill penned. His bill, The Healthy Americans Act, will eliminate the health-care tax exclusion the unions want. It offers a tax credit of $17,000 per year, which is more than my best policy provided during my teaching days. The bill also addresses most of the other major health-care issues:

• Guarantees private health care coverage for all Americans

• Provides health benefits equal to what Members of Congress enjoy

            • Provides incentives for individuals and insurers to focus on prevention, wellness and disease management

            • Establishes tough cost containment measures that will save $1.48 trillion over 10 years; and be fully paid for with the $2.2 trillion currently spent on health care in America today

Fourteen other senators, Republicans and Democrats, are co-sponsoring it. This bill offers more choices than the other health care legislation circling Congress. Meanwhile, The Healthy American Act alleviates the responsibility of employers, has a robust cost-control mechanism, and it has been scored as revenue neutral over 10 years by the congressional Budget office. It lacks one thing: Interest groups to back it.

I say defending the status quo and doing nothing is not an option for we are on track to bankrupt the country. Write to your congressman today and push Wyden’s Healthy American Act. When Congress comes back from vacation in September they will have one interest group on their side, The American People.