|
|
|
|
Health Insurance: Is it failing us?
by Randa Gabel Consider this, "nearly every president since Harry Truman has put forward a plan to increase the number of Americans with health coverage." But to date, the U.S. is the only industrialized country in the world in which all citizens do not have access to health coverage." Then add John J. Sweeney's, President of the AFL-CIO, recorded statement that "eight out of 10 uninsured Americans are in working families" with the staggering statistic that "at least two million Americans lost their health insurance in 2001" all listed on Covering the Uninsured's website to sum up - it could simply happen to you. In fact, that jolting reality was felt by many local businesses and residents of Green County in the Fall of 2000 as members of GHC's Alliance Chamber Health Insurance Plan (A-CHIP) received a 90 day "Notice of Terminations of Health Insurance" effective January 1, 2001. Immediately area businesses found themselves scrambling for price quotes and options while undergoing "underwriting" from various insurance companies. The underwriting process, of having individual's health evaluated to set overall group or individual rates, went smoothly for healthy individuals and groups but placed those with current or previous health issues into the national crisis of finding affordable health care. "By law insurance companies have to offer groups coverage," explained Nancy Potter of New Glarus. "However, they will offer the maximum rate they can by law if that group has health problems." As the previous owner of New Glarus Bakery, Potter found herself faced with an 180% rate increase in providing insurance to her employees. "At first it took awhile to sink in," recalled Potter, "then I contacted the Insurance Commissioner thinking they (GHC) couldn't just cancel us without an explanation and that there had to be a way to find affordable health care." Sadly, the commissioner informed her that indeed GHC could cancel their policy and left Potter with the task of finding affordable health care. "It's huge problem," stated Potter. "The health care industry is a for profit system. We are able to adjust our spending to our income level in just about every area of our lives but not with healthcare. A broken leg costs the same if you make ten dollars per hour or ten thousand dollars per hour. That is what makes this such a painful issue. Healthcare involves big dollars and the system must be changed." Potter's belief that health care reform will take governmental intervention as well as consumer involvement had her speaking out to the commissioner and various elected officials. Eventually, she was appointed by the governor to a health insurance related task force and recently participated in a national ad campaign for the uninsured in Washington D.C. "To me it is the biggest crisis facing our nation," explained Potter. "Medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States and we need to raise the awareness of this." Potter also believes that there is enough blame for rising medical costs to go around. "The doctors blame the pharmaceuticals, consumers blame insurance, insurance blames the hospitals, and nobody wants to take responsibility for the problem." She continued. "Even consumers need to accept some of the responsibility. We smoke, we don't wear seat belts, we don't wear helmets and many of us don't have the goal to stay healthy. There is just not an easy solution, everybody has shared in creating the problem and everybody will need to share in the solution." She continued to state that to evoke change, "people need to be vocal in telling their congressman or woman that there needs to be a change to our health care system. Our government needs to pay more attention to the people who do not have access to quality healthcare," stated Potter. "They need to acknowledge that there is a problem and start involving everybody in a solution. Access to quality healthcare for everyone is fundamental to having a healthy, strong nation." Locally, Potter recounts the many faces area citizens who have been affected by the failing health care system. Among them she lists, Michelle Deininger. "In the case of Michelle Deininger," stated Potter, "People have to understand that Michelle never had a lapse in coverage. She always had insurance. Her problems with coverage began when her current insurance informed her that they were not going to cover her cancer treatments because they felt they were pre-existing. When her insurance company finally did pay, they didn't cover anywhere near all the costs." Potter continued, "I really hope that people take an empathetic attitude toward people with medical bills. They need to understand that it can happen to anybody. Michelle is a hard-working responsible person. Part of Michelle's stress is that she is such a responsible person. She feels very stressed because she has these enormous medical bills that she can't possibly pay when she is home sick and unable to work. This same scenario could affect anyone tomorrow and we need to fix it. It may not be affecting you, but it is affecting your neighbor." To learn more about our nation's health care crisis go to http://www.coveringtheuninsured.org, then contact your legislative representatives at http://www.legis.state.wi.us and Department of Insurance Website: http://badger.state.wi.us/agencies/oci/oci_home.htm to share your concern.
|
|
Copyright 2002 Jim Salter
|
