Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group What to do about healthcare? Can it be fixed?

Good Morning Timo

As I have said before I am also on COBRA. Carry on the insurance from my last employer. For Carol and I, we pay $630/mo. This is for hospital, medical, and prescription meds only. And with that there is a $20 copay at every doctor appointment, and a copay on meds that must be purchased in 90 day quantities from the insurance company's pharmacy. This runs from $20-$100 depending on the med and whether a generic is available. COBRA is a limited time coverage to fill a gap between becoming unemployed/uninsured and finding a new insurance carrier.

There seems to be a misconception, even among others in the US that Medicaid is a free pass for everyone to get healthcare. Not True! In my own case, Carol works a part time job for minimum wage. Her employer does offer insurance that is so poor that he doesn't carry it himself. This will cost her approx. $325/month once the COBRA runs out. She cannot receive Medicaid because she makes "too much money". I cannot go on her employer's insurance due to the AS. So my choices are to find a private carrier that will accept me with AS, an impossible task. Or go to Medicaid. If I go with the Medicaid, because of Carol's income I will have an approx. $350/month "Spend Down". In other words every month, the first $350 comes out of my pocket. Also Enbrel is not covered, which isn't a big deal since my rheumatologist does not accept Medicaid. So once COBRA has ran its course I wind up paying more money for much less coverage than I currently have. There are other state run options for low income households but they cost even more than this.

I would whole heartedly support a government based insurance plan if they could pull it off. And even pay another $60 to extend that coverage as yo have. The problem here is that our leaders, regardless of party lines, are in bed with big insurance, and big business. So they aren't going to slap the hands of the people that put them in office. So we get a social insurance that benefits the insurance companies and healthcare companies, not the public at large.

Dow,

At least from my standpoint I disagree. Yes I am a Republican and have held a job and paid taxes and social security since I was 13, however now I am not working due to my AS and its related complications. And I am paying my own way on COBRA insurance for the time being. And I never held my insurance policy over the head of anyone, rich or poor, citizen or alien. I do feel that to be covered by an insurance that no doubt we the people will be paying for, that you should at least be a citizen or legal visitor to the US.

I am not against the general issue of having a national health insurance. I am against having one pushed onto us that we know so little about, and how it will be financed and for how much. I would feel this way regardless of the party in charge. There are so many spins on what this plan covers and doesn't cover and where the money will come from to fund it, does anybody really know what we are getting? The plan on paper looks like a NYC phone book. Just give us the facts and let the people decide.

Replace Detroit with Baltimore or Atlanta or Sacramento. My statement was not about the folks of Detroit, but rather about people that game the system and the exercise (the handout) that was carried out. Personally, I see something far more dangerous happening there (no, not a Detroit-related problem), but that is not fodder for this forum. There are some folks everywhere that game the system. It shouldn't have been anything that was construed as personal toward the citizens of the city in which you reside. I can appreciate your going on the defense. I likely would have regarding the folks of my native city too.

Your right, I don't know a darn thing about the folks that stood in line to receive help. However, understand this. I don't mock people or laugh at them or their hardships. I've had too many health related hardships (not just AS) in my life to want to make fun or make fun of anyone's hardships. I've also received plenty of help from others in my life. Heck, right now I live with my parents since having to discontinue my job due to health related matters.

I also find agreement with you that the news media will find whatever they believe is most entertaining to their viewers/listeners/readers instead of reporting facts. They interject with politically biased opinions and creative editing to sway the audience instead of letting the viewer/listener/reader interpret the facts and draw their own conclusion.

Wow Brad, I very much agree with you, and have sincere sympathy for your friend.

My own mother is in this 'working poor' group, and in NJ she does better as she has a job that pays a slightly more livable wage (about 14/hr).

Six years ago when she was living in Florida, the only jobs available to her were day labor in cleaning up construction sites or doing landscaping at the golf courses at slighly over 5 dollars an hour, all with no health insurance of course. And all of her friends in neighbors were in the same sand trap. They had each other and not much more. She watched a very good friend of hers die of ovarian cancer caught late and basically untreatable, this poor woman never had a chance. So sad.

Shame on America for looking right over these people's heads to the middle class and never taking the time to solve this from the bottom up.

Jess