Don’t you just love the American way of life? Think about it… Every year, I get my annual physical complete with mammogram, Pap smear, cardiac stress test, eyesight test, hearing test, flu and pneumonia vaccinations, any needed booster shot for tetanus, blood work that encompasses over four pages of individual markers, skin cancer screening, and even a colonoscopy (preformed at a leading university hospital complete with an MD anesthesiologist and four nurses). Plus, the clinic provides me with breakfast after my fasting blood work is done, lunch, a private lounge area with wide-screen HDTV and computers, and actual pajama-like button-front monogrammed scrubs to wear during my day at the facility.
It’s zero out of pocket and no health insurance claims to file. All gratis thanks to my husband’s company.
Never mind the fact that I’m a healthy, non-smoking, very light drinking, daily exercising, within the good range for weight, BMI, blood pressure and heart rate, monogamous, under 45-year-old female. Bring on all those preventative tests that tell me I don’t have cancer or heart disease or diabetes. I’m not paying for it. What do I care if I take up the time of doctors who could be seeing patients at risk for certain health issues? It’s better than seeing my former general practitioner.
He and all the doctors in his practice went to a boutique practice where you have to pay $1800 out of pocket non-insurance reimbursement eligible just for the privilege of calling him your doctor. Then every time you see him, it’s the regular visit cost which is eligible for insurance reimbursement, after your copay.
He’s making the same amount of money and seeing fewer patients. I’m getting better care for free. Insurance companies are still making a healthy profit for their shareholders and paying lobbying companies like my husband’s to make sure that the insurance companies stay in business.
So, you see, I have a vested interest in making sure that health care in America remains status quo. So what if health care costs consume an ever growing share of the U.S. economy, up from $993 billion in 1993 when reform was last considered to over $2.3 trillion in 2009? Why should I pay more taxes to offset the cost of health care reform when my husband is fortunate to make in the top 5% of American salaries? Why should I give up my platinum health care just so other people can get an appointment? Why should I care if rising health care costs threaten to bankrupt some families, become unaffordable to more companies, and push the federal budget to the breaking point? After all, America is the last great Free Market in the world. Ain’t life grand as long as you are one of the health care haves?
My Kingdom for a Horse
1 day ago
I am not sure if you are writing tongue in cheek but from my perspective:
ReplyDelete1. We have "gold plated" health insurance. We have lots of benefits, but we choose our coverage and we pay accordingly. I had my gallbladder removed in 2006. The bill came to almost $60k. Our portion, with deductibles, was only $125.00. I won't feel guilty for it.
2. We have a boutique doctor, that we are paying $1000 a year to, above our insurance. We are not sure that we are going to keep him, though. He treats my husband much better than he does me. And my husband has seen it. It is because I am fat and not in the criteria of the patient base he really wants to have.
I don't want to see my husband's taxes raise because there are those that choose not to have, or buy the absolute lowest amount of insurance they want. And that under this healthcare plan even illegals will be eligible for all the same health care benefits without the responsibility of being a citizen. How many of our American tax dollares are going to cover them?
You might want to check out this blog, she addresses a lot of issues with Nationalized Healthcare... http://my3sonsalways.blogspot.com/