THE AVERAGE AMERICAN HMO USER's HEALTH CARE SITUATION
By Tricia and Sarah and Anita Sands Hernandez rewrote a tadFIRST --- TRICIA:
I come from stock that has propensities to stroke, diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, but are generally long-lived (unless they get into a tobacco addiction). Cancer can occur-- prostate, breast, thyroid-- but never kills. Diabetes occurs, usually when someone is near 60, but they go on until they are 80+! I ate Weight Watchers most of my life. I went on the fish-five-times-a-week in my teens, lost 20 pounds, then gained 60 lbs in a year when I was on the pill. I did imbibe enough knowledge to learn that I disliked to fry things, veggies are great, and chicken bouillon is a much better seasoning than butter. And I kept up my careful cooking disciplines. Today I am 55 yrs old and I had Cancer of the thyroid and got over it with surgery. Anthem/Blue Cross/Blue Shield paid for the hospitals. For me, the biggest suck is health care costs. My hubby and I make about $32,000 take home a year. Our insurance costs are $4600 per year. ONE SEVENTH of our INCOME goes to health INSURANCE We lost our house in the mortgage crash but we have health insurance. GO FIGURE!!! Now, admittedly, I've been hit with a truck of a triple whammy -- stroke/ cancer/ diabetes. So I'm stuck with 10 different medications a day. Two of them are $65 together-- that's $780 per year, and this is with the copay! The other 8 are $3.33 per month each, or $320 per year. What's the rest? Covering the part of testing that the company WON'T pay (on top of a $150 per year deductable). None of my tests are duplicates, but a diabetic requires blood tests every 4 months, and diabetes is one of the fastest-rising ailments out there! Why can't we go to a single payer system? Admittedly this is the government running things, but it's got to be better than what we have now.
Think you'll have to wait for health care? I have private insurance, and
I had to wait TWO AND A HALF MONTHS for my cancer surgery, because "that
was the first available date"!Think no new meds will be developed? My most recent meds were developed
in Switzerland, which has a single payer system!Think a government-run health care system is bad? It seems to work for
all the military personnel and their families, plus all the congressmen!
My daughter's father-in-law is in a veteran's hospital with lung cancer
(Agent Orange in Vietnam). He gets top-notch care, testing, etc., and
doesn't pay a dime! Now admittedly, such a veteran deserves it. But what
about decent people who've raised families to be responsible citizens,
people who don't commit crimes, who work hard, and vote regularly? Don't
we deserve something, too, for our sacrifices to make and be good
citizens?So, on a very low wage, we pay ONE-FOURTH of our take-home pay on
medicine! And we haven't been to a dentist for 8 years as we have no
dental insurance!When I was in college in 1977, I minored in economics. I learned that
the US was the only industrialized nation without government health
care. That's 32 years ago, and nothing has changed! Maybe if I'd had
cheap health care then, I'd have been treated for my sarcoidosis, and
none of those dreadful diseases I've got now would have happened!A stitch in time back then would be a real savings now, not just to us,
but to the system. But, more money is made off me now, with all my
illnesses, than it would have been if I'd been caught early.
And money is the name of the game, right?
Oh, like I made you ill...right! SURE BABY!
I held you down and made you eat that cake!Anthem-- Blue Cross, Blue Shield. Weak payers on tests; many different
levels of drug coverage.While all those $4 and $9.99 deals on drugs are great, many drugs are
not included, such as Plavix, a very popular blood thinner (heart attack
victims, stroke). I pay $25 monthly for that alone!Zetia, a mild cholesterol lowering drug (helps if you can't take
statins, like Lipitor, Zocor, etc.), is a "Tier 3"-- $40 monthly copay!Now, if you have a condition that requires frequent blood testing, such
as diabetes (high cholesterols, triglycerides, blood sugar levels), then
blood tests are necessary four times a year. I usually get stuck (pun
intended) with $75 additional each time. On top of the $15 copay to the
doc.Have an additional problem? $30 copay to specialists. Many diabetics
have to go to an endocrinologist yearly. I go to mine for my thyroid
cancer (one of the fastest growing kinds of cancer-- it is harmed by all
the radioactivity around now, from pollution of all kinds). Ultrasound
testing of the neck, plus thyroid blood tests-- my part is $210 yearly.Don't forget the deductible! Mine is $150 yearly.
So let's see-- $4590 for the part we pay to the insurance; 2 specialists
(one for eyes) is $60 plus tests of about $350. Regular doc, $60 plus
$3450 in tests. And about $150 a month in medicine copay. That's at
least $7345 per year, or, my bad, about 23% of my income, not 25%. And
that's if I don't get sick, and it isn't including my husband's stuff!Okay, they pay 80% of your major medicals-- hospital stays, surgery.
There are doctors out the yin-yang-- not just the surgeon, but the
radiologists, anesthesiologists, lab testing, etc. Go to the emergency
room and there are separate emergency room docs on top of the hospital
costs themselves! Since my 5-day stay in 2000 for my stroke was $15000
plus docs, I paid about $3000 out of pocket-- plus the $150 for the
ambulance to get me there!I just say that it would be cheaper for me (and many others) to have a
National Health Insurance a la the UK. Think the UK is bad? I have one
name-- Sir Stephen Hawking. He's had Lou Gehrig's disease for over 45
years, far outliving any other known sufferer. AND the UK's NHS has been
treating him! That care must be phenomenal over there! I'm perfectly
willing to pay taxes for it!I waited two and a half months for cancer surgery with my private
insurance, because "it was the first available date". Two and a half
months of being totally terrified. Fortunately, it was a small, very
slow-growing cancer.Many times I have to delay buying my meds, because I simply don't have
the copay. And we make too much money to be covered by Medicaid.
(Medicare? I won't be available because I "never worked". I raised two
children, paid bills, canned vegetables-- but I didn't work much outside
the home, therefore I am not entitled to Social Security or Medicare on
my own. I'll get benefits through my husband.)I guess being a good mom isn't work, huh?
I've tried 3 statins-- Lipitor, Mevacor, and Zocor. About 1 and a half
to 2 years on them, I get excruciating pain in my arms. That's the
"muscle pain" you hear about. Muscle fibers are being destroyed by the
medicine. Hurts like hell! I have to go off them, and try another.There are six statins approved in the US-- I've been through 3. I don't
think I'll take any more. They do a great job of lowering my
cholesterol, but I can't stand the pain.Let's see how many of these I've had:
a.. Blood sugar problems-- check Diabetes II
b.. Edema-- check (all my life, probably due to weight)
c.. Mineral deficiencies-- low Vitamin D
d.. Chronic inflammation-- took a year and a half to heal a split
fingernail
e.. Difficulty in healing-- see above probably due to diabetes,
neuropathy
a.. Allergies-- yes, to statin drugs!
b.. Asthma-- yup probably am allergic to flour, dairy.
c.. Reduced libido-- what libido?
d.. Infertility-- menopause
e.. Various reproductive problems-- menopauseOkay, I've had most of these. I've been on Lipitor, Mevacor, and Zocor.
Like the men described in the article on these statins, I usually am
okay for a year and a half to two years, then I go into excruciating
pain, usually in my arms. After going off the drug, the pain gets
better, but takes a little longer to heal with each succeeding drug. I
used Co-Q10 after the latest one, Zocor, and it seems to have done a
great job of healing.Could I go off all these meds? Lose the health care system? Just rely on
supplements? Could I switch my diet to raw fruit for breakfast, salad
and nuts for lunch, salad veggies and nuts for dinner? Caveman diet? I
know there was no hospital insurance in 1,000,000 BC and they got along
but probably dinosaur liver is rich in nutrients we don't have in
today's arsenic polluted chicken livers.I have a note here-- there is a wonderful diet book called "The Origins
Diet", which talks about eating food with as little processing as
possible to lose weight. The author, a nurse, talks about how the
pre-Neolithic (pre-agriculture) people had few cavities, were generally
taller than today's people, and all-around healthier than we are today.
No grains, very little sugar (except when berries and fruits were in
season), a much wider variety of foods eaten (especially leaves and
greens), and small tribes, as opposed to large communities.Of course, what changed all that was climate change. The last Ice Age
ended, traditional savannas became deserts. Man was forced to begin
farming cereals, grain crops. He settled down in larger groups,
population exploded! But the grains and domesticated animals exposed man
to many more diseases than he was used to before.A good analogy for this is the decimation of Native Americans when
Columbus arrived. Although historians can't believe it, 95% of the
native population was killed off-- by human and animal diseases. (See
the account of Jamestown in "A Land as God Made It" by James Horn.)When the Europeans got here, native Americans were taller, heavier,
cleaner, and healthier than they were. The natives laughed at the clumsy
guns, being able to shoot better with bows and arrows than the
blunderbuss. But then the diseases brought by the Euros got them--
measles, smallpox, plague. THEN the Euros brought the animals in-- pigs,
dogs, cows. These just reinforced the diseases with innate ailments of
their own.But back to healthy man. Clearly, living in small groups, living and
eating naturally, and living off natural foods has value in increasing
health and longevity. A strong connection to nature cures, doesn't kill.
A varied unrefined diet is far preferable to that which is mass produced
nowadays.Perhaps modern man isn't as intelligent as his predecessor when it comes
to health!~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~
SARAH WROTE: WE NEED HEALTHCARE PAID FOR by GOV. Of course they should economize to pay for it, maybe take away the AFGHAN & IRAQ wars which cost us many trillions a year. I have no health coverage at all. The lady you cite who pays 1/7th of her income for health care? let me tell you, 1/7 of someone's income sounds like relief to me. I work two part time jobs, and neither of my employers offer any benefits! The only insurance policy available to me (which I didn't buy, as normal medical expenses are cheaper out of pocket) would be 27% of my GROSS pay -- plus a $3000 deductible with no drug benefit or co-pays of any kind. It would theoretically cover hospitalization, but, believe me -- they would find a way not to pay for that either, while keeping you from specialists and delaying needed treatment. This sort of useless insurance is what most small businesses offer now, too, as the better plans have been completely priced out of reach of all but the rich. This year I have had a major illness (though I didn't end up in the hospital, thankfully), and I've only paid about $1600 total, including all tests, office visits, and medications. Don't get me wrong -- I am not calling that a bargain. But If I had had the insurance it wouldn't have covered a single cent of those costs, but I would have been out an additional $3000 in premiums year to date. (My normal medical costs in a year run less than $500, for what it's worth.) HEALTH INSURANCE IS A SCAM. We need a full-out single payer system! thanks for letting me vent." I sure agree with this woman! The truth is, half of america has no health care recourse. NOT 90 percent as gov claims!
NOTE: The first woman TRICIA, recalculated now,I just got the email she says the two of them pay A QUARTER OF THEIR INCOME TO HMOS! Mind you they have two incomes, hers and her hubbies' the 1/7th figure was gross off their salaries but she wrote me that there are extenuating circumstances, so it's really more like a quarter of their joint income! "First off, $4590 for the part we pay to the insurance; 2 specialists (one for eyes) is $60 plus tests of about $350. Regular doc, $60 plus $3450 in tests. And about $150 a month in medicine copay. That's at least $7345 per year, or, my bad, about 23% of my income, not 25%. And that's if I don't get sick, and it isn't including my husband's stuff!" Okay, here's the breakdown:
$4590 - 10 months insurance paid @ $459/mo (Hubby is a bus driver, only pays 10 months/year)
$60 - copay to two specialists yearly
$350 - specialists tests not covered
$60 - four regular doctor's visits
$300 - her tests (not $3450)
$150/mo in medicine copay= $1800/yr
$150 - deductibleTotal: $7310, or 23% of a $32000 yearly take home pay. Not including hubby's visits and meds. That would be an additional $30 for his visits, and $80 for his meds.
Remember, I got hit by a truck of a triple whammy-- stroke, cancer, diabetes. I take four blood
pressure pills, two diabetes, one blood thinner, two anti-anxiety, two cholesterol lowering
pills, for a total of nine different medicines daily (I repeat one of the BP pills and one of
the diabetes, so 11 pills equals 9 prescription meds). Two of these are not generic pills, so
they are a total of $65/month. Seven are generic, so they actually come out to $23. So, I
only pay $88/mo, or $1056/yr. That will lower my bill by $750 yearly, or to $6560, or 21% of
my take-home pay. So say one-fifth of my take-home pay goes to medical expenses. IS THAT EXACT?Obviously neither of us is good at math. Just realize that the figure is STUPID HIGH! And the money gov saves on SERVICES TO CITIZENS IN OUR BORDERS goes to murdering beautiful Muslim babies OUTSIDE OUR BORDERS --- GENOCIDE of the most primitive, impoverished people, the purest, most saintly people on earth.. What right have Americans to wreak wars, civilian genocide on ARABY? TO bomb countries where women stay home and care for infants, love their children, a country rightly outraged at our invasion into their world? It is NAZI AMERICA time! Shame on anyone who allows it or who has rage in their hearts against Muslims. It is racial prejudice, masked as outrage at 911 which some German MUNICH based Arabs did. What if MUNICH WHITES had done it? Would we bomb GERMANY? NO! This is race war plain and simple!
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