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Seeking insurance reform
Las Vegan’s story should persuade lawmakers to back affordable health care
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.
One way to make the case before skeptical members of Congress that health insurance reform is desperately needed is to expose them to more of the real-life stories that haunt tens of millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans.
In Wednesday’s Las Vegas Sun, reporter Lisa Mascaro informed readers of the plight of one of those people, Las Vegas small-business owner Michael MacQuarrie.
He and other small-business owners gathered Tuesday on Capitol Hill to tell lawmakers about the benefits of insurance reform for businesses and their employees.
A licensed structural inspector, MacQuarrie lost his job in 2007 after the housing market collapsed. After his temporary COBRA insurance coverage expired, he became uninsured, joining nearly 500,000 other Nevadans. Because of a preexisting lung condition, he was denied coverage and forced to pay for health care out of pocket.
His problems were compounded when his teenage stepson required spinal surgery, putting MacQuarrie $150,000 in debt.
Like many Nevadans who do not have insurance, MacQuarrie wants to provide a decent living for his family but is burdened by medical debt — the size of which no one should have to endure.
He started his own business this year and would like to provide health benefits to his employees. But paying down medical bills and providing health coverage to employees will continue to be nearly impossible for MacQuarrie and other small-business owners in similar circumstances if Congress fails to reform the broken insurance system.
Naysayers who have deceived the public by screaming “government takeover” in reference to the much-needed public option should spend more time with Americans such as MacQuarrie who find health care unaffordable or unobtainable.
As he told the Sun: “For me, it’s not political, it’s personal. I need to be able to survive this and provide for my family.”
The health care insurance debate boils down to this: either make premiums affordable and available for all Americans or continue to watch friends, neighbors and co-workers drown in debt and crowd hospital emergency rooms.
Discussion: 18 comments so far…
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it really is very simple...
you either support the public option...
or...
you support the greedy pig insurance companies and their very real death panels and the money grubbing whore doctors...
"The health care insurance debate boils down to this: either make premiums affordable and available for all Americans"
At $1.2 trillion and rising there is nothing in the bill that meets the LV Sun's or small-business owner Michael MacQuarrie criteria.
So for just under a trillion dollars we are getting:
- 98% of the people NOT covered by the public option
- 29 million NOT covered by health insurance
- A wait time of 6 months if you have a pre-condition
- $490 billion taken away from senior's Medicare
- $280 billion NOT paid to Doctors for services rendered
- it does Not include tort reform
- it does NOT allow plans to cross state lines
- it does NOT reduce the cost of healthcare providers
- It does NOT have a enforceable Individual mandate
- It does NOT allow for catastrophic" healthcare policies.
- It does NOT preclude cost shifting.
- It does NOT impose tort reform to reduce defensive medicine.
The bill is lacking any costing effort.
This bill is the "BAIT" in the Democrats "bait and switch" medical operation, it only attempts to squeeze the cost of the program administrators by replacing private workers with public government workers.
Lets put the bill to the litmus test - if a congress person votes to support and pass this legislation, they must enroll in the public option and give up their current government coverage. Then lets see how many get in line and play follow the leader behind Nancy. If its good for us, it should be good for them and I bet not one of them is willing to do that. That being the case, the bill is garbage and taking us down the path of socialism.
It is much more honorable for Mr. MacQuarrie to pay his own doctor bills than it is for me to be shouldered with his burdens. I did honest work to earn my money and would like to spend it as I chose.
This is a rehash of the article in yesterday's SUN.
Yesterday the article included that this guy was crying about his wife and stepson also not having health insurance.
BUT, today, the editor left out the part about this guy's wife and stepson also not having insurance. How convenient...
It appears that this caring guy supposedly could not get health insurance for himself, so he did not bother to get health insurance for his wife and stepson.
Makes me want to go out and hire this guy... NOT
Nothing government run is ever affordable.
The Democrats bill will cost us an additional $2 billion by 2020 and still leave 14 million people uninsured while taxing almost half of America's families for having good insurance policies. This is a bad idea.
1) Promote Health Savings Accounts
2) Eliminate the tax advantage from having health insurance provided via the employer
3) Stop taxing health insurance
4) Eliminate mandates on health insurance
5) Eliminate restrictions on health insurance competition between states.
We need less government interference in the health care market not more.
*trillion
Instead of using anecdotes we could also expose politicians to cold hard facts. Like how Americans are more likely to survive cancer than their universal health care counterparts. Or receive organ transplants or dialysis treatment. Our how premature babies are more likely to survive here (in fact, in some countries like England, treatment is REFUSED for babies born before a certain week). We don't even have to get into the talk about waiting times at hospitals.
What a bunch of bull. Most of my family resides in Germany and England. Like me they are getting old and have health issues. The care they recieve is outstanding because it is not driven by profit. Insurance companies deny 200 MILLION claims for essential medical services per year in the US. A major cause of premature death. No one nows how many applications for insurance get turned down. We should pay our own medical bills... give me a break! Nearly half of us will get cancer alone. Many cancer tratments cost 100-300k per bout. Drugs like Avastin cost 50k per year.The pharmaceutical industry reports half of the 3 billion prescription written never get filled because of cost. How many of you will have the money to pay for these expensive treatments when you get sick??? none.. 30 trillion in med bills coming due in the next 10 years. It's all about the money baby. Americans don't have it. The savings rate the last 30 years has been abysmal! Insurance companies that don't pay med bills are useless. People who don't carry insurance and are so naive to think they can pay their own bills are the reason for 12-15 hour waits in emergency rooms.
zippert, you wrote: "People who don't carry insurance and are so naive to think they can pay their own bills are the reason for 12-15 hour waits in emergency rooms."
No zippert, It's not the people who don't carry insurance that are paying their own bills that are the reason for long waits in emergency rooms. IT IS THOSE WHO DON'T HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE AND DON'T HAVE ANY INTENTION TO PAY FOR THE MEDICAL SERVICES THEY RECEIVE...
Zip, I don't doubt that you and your family benefit by robbing the poor and the young. I don't dispute that. But you can't deny the fact that Europeans do have to wait considerbly longer for care. They are less likely to survive cancer, get organ transplants, or kidney dialysis. Those are cold hard facts.
Btw, half the cost of America's health care is from the government run medicare and medicaid...
To all of you nay-sayers and those that point to Europe and Canada; try reading about the healthcare in Israel. http://blogs.rj.org/reform/2009/07/israe...
What the heck was birdie doing up at 3:44 in the morning?
Thinker
Americans have 67% more wealth than the average Isreali. Part of the reason is that we don't have as much socialism as Isreal does, and that includes in health care.
Birdie has to get up early to deliver his papers.
Patrick, The poor and young have nothing. How can I rob and what can I get from those who have nothing. In Europe there are waits for elective procedures. Emergencies are taken care of just fine. The differences in cancer survival are minimal and due to procedures a multi-trillion dollar system allows for. In Europe they won't pay for 50k drugs and 140 million gamma knife machines like we have here. Try to get your insurance to pay for above. Many companies are saying "no thanks"
Larryvegas.. all hospitals have law firms on contingency to go after people that have resources but refuse to pay bills. If you have cash they will hunt you down to the ends of the earth. The first letter i got after moving to Vegas 5 years ago was from a collection agency. The bill was for a 1977 doctors visit my mom failed to pay. She died in 1982 and they are still trying to collect. If you have money they will get it. The people lining up at the emergency room have nothing.
Zip,
1)The young don't need health insurance as much as the old. Forcing them to buy it or pay taxes to support it does in fact mean you are taking away some of their wealth. You're right to point out that they have little wealth to begin with.
2) Broken legs, hips and arms are considered elective if you're too old.
3) No they don't, if you're too old you don't get that treatment. There is a reason why Americans survive really bad diseases more often than Europeans do. PS if you want to lower drug prices, get the US government to stop restricting international trade.
4) Tell the collection agency to stop contacting you. Send a certified letter with return receipt. By law they must not contact you ever again. You can also hire a lawyer and offer the hospital a much smaller payment - they often accept. Don't deal with the collection agency.
Yes our country has problems, but more government isn't the answer. Our health care woes were created by government in the first place.
Patrick, Insurance industry execs have stated publicly that they can't insure the sick without participation by the young and healthy. It's the premiums from the young that pay for the old. That is the main issue with medicare. They insure old and sick and get no money from healthy people. This causes a huge funding problem. It would be like car insurance companies insuring bad drivers and getting no business from good drivers. They would go bust overnight.I have been driving 40 years without a claim. I still pay for insurance. My good driving supports the industry so they can keep premiums reasonable and cover claims by lousy drivers.
Whether the private sector handles it like Switzerland or the govt. like England, France and Germany 100% participation is mandatory.
The young get old very quickly. I can attest to that.
Hip transplants were invented in England. My uncle had his first one in his 60s and second at 88. He died soon after but what the heck. His Dr. advised against the transplant because of age but he insisted and got it. I don't know where all these rumors come from but my relatives have gotten all the medical care they have needed both in Germany and England regardless of age. I was just in Gemany and we talked about it.They believe Americans are making all this stuff for political reasons.
Have a great night.