Health Care Reform?

I am probably beating a dead horse with this blog but, I am going to talk about the health care reform.

Has anyone thought that much of the hospital problems are due to mental illness and immigrants that don't have a doctor? When Reagan shut down the mental institutes/hospitals in the 80's all over the country it put 1000's of mentally ill people out on the street. Which if you look at much of our homelessness, many of them are mentally ill. So, these mentally ill people crowd our ER's and take up valuable time and resources. Add on top of that other un-insured people, then the criminals, then immigrants, and frankly just anyone else visiting the ER for any other reason and of course you have a loss! I don't know if there is a quick fix to that. Forcing coverage onto mentally ill is like trying to force them to take their meds, it just won't work.

You are not only going to lose money but, you are going to lose great faculty, doctors and nurses from burnout and what will happen? Well, I think we are seeing the beginning happening right now at our very own HCMC. One of the best trauma hospitals around and unfortunately it is also located in one of our rougher areas of town so, you see all spectrums of people from all spectrums of life. It is a great learning hospital because you will see just about everything there but, unfortunately you also see many of the repeat, non-paying customers too. We need to reform something to fix this issue but what?

Health care reform; I have no idea what the answer is but, what Obama and his cohorts are trying to get passed is not the answer. This isn't something you can do a quick fix on. There are too many problems in our health care system and trying to bully through a bill with so many questions yet unanswered is terribly irresponsible. We need to ask questions, we need to know what is really in there. Have you read all 2000+ pages of the bill? Has your Senator, your Governor, your Congressman? Has your doctor?

Do any of us really know what is in that bill and what it means not only to our country but, to your own family? I don't know if I am for or against the bill yet. I can't figure out what on earth is in the thing! I know that I am only hearing bits and pieces of the whole puzzle. Truly it is like trying to see the picture of a 1000 piece puzzle when you only have 10 of the pieces to look at.

I think one of the things that should be looked at is reforming our insurance companies. Here in Minnesota we are blessed that we have many choices but, in other parts of the country some only have 1 insurance company to choose from. What about opening up the borders and allowing our health insurance companies to offer health care to everyone in the country instead of just certain states/regions? Wouldn't free enterprise allow the prices to fall as it would bring in competition? We might even be able to get not just good coverage but, great coverage!

What ever happened to the insurance company covering everything and you just paying premiums? My entire life I have never paid for anything out of pocket except for premiums unless it was something my plan didn't cover. (Which I knew ahead of time.) I haven't had to pay not only my monthly fees but, then also a deductible for my coverage plus, co-pays on visits and prescriptions before! As I look for new healthcare for my family and talk to others, I am realizing that for a family of 5 or 6 you will pay in upwards of $800 a month plus have a deductible of at least $1500 and then you will pay co-pays after that. Wow, that is a lot of money!

For our family, we have a son on the Autism Spectrum and we are trying everything to work with his diet, his supplements, vitamins and therapy to keep him mainstreamed and to give him the best possible opportunities available to him in life. It would be so much easier and cheaper for us to just put him on some drug instead of working on his diet and giving him vitamins and supplements. In fact, it would save us so much money to just let him go into his Autistic world and just drug him up but, that isn't what I want for my son. So, we are paying for everything out of pocket and our costs can end up being anywhere from $300-1000 or more a month. We also like to visit chiropractors to keep our bodies healthy so that we don't get sick and yet our insurance company will only pay for 12 visits a year so, we pay about $45 a visit/per person after those are used up.

Our family is relatively healthy and I believe if we could have our insurance company give us a break for being healthier or if they would cover some of our supplement/vitamins cost or our nutritionist, DAN doctors, or chiropractic costs we would be at the regular doctor even less. What about what some car insurance companies do? Why can't we get rebates or deductions or have incentives for taking care of ourselves? I have the good driver discount because I have no tickets or accidents on my car insurance, can't I have the healthy persons discount on my health insurance? I know that some sicknesses people can't help, I am not talking about those, I am talking about PREVENTATIVE health care people.

Why are we not trying to prevent people from getting sick in the first place? Why are we allowing people to eat whatever they want, drink whatever, not exercise, and frankly not try and take care of themselves? Why is my family and others like us being punished for people who choose to take the easy way out by just taking a pill than working hard to get themselves healthy?

I believe we have become a quick fix society that believes a pill or a shot will fix/cure everything and anything and we don't want to know the answers so, we don't ask any questions. Instead of trying to lower our cholesterol by exercising and eating healthier, we just take a pill. I am talking about many people who are too busy, too lazy, too this, too that to try and take care of themselves or their family.

I can't tell you how many people gasp when they hear what my husband and I do to help our children have the best life possible. I can't tell you how many times I have heard someone tell me, 'Oh, I couldn't do that!' or how many people ask me why I don't just give my children antacids instead of changing their diets, why? Because I brought these people into the world and it is my responsibility to make sure I do the best I can for them while they are in my house.

So back to health care, what are you doing to make sure your family is covered? What are you doing to make sure you aren't being punished for other people's inabilities to take care of themselves?

I don't have any answers, I have no idea what to do about this but, I do know it is my responsibility to ask questions, to bring my questions to the forefront and to get people thinking. It is my responsibility to educate myself, my family, and my friends about what I am learning and I suggest you all do the same.

It isn't just one issue, one bill, one hospital, one problem. There also isn't just one answer to fix everything. I think this current bill trying to be passed is as my husband would say, 'just putting lipstick on a pig', it is still a pig.