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- Mar 22, 2006
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Ok, I'm an uninsured US citizen that is working a full-time job and is considered low income.
This is what my life is like: I have injured myself while on the job. Because my employer is a small operation with less than 4 employees, they are not obligated to provide insurance of any sort. Well, I fell off the slats in the chicken house and bungled up my ankle. It turned blue and was swollen for about 3 days. It hurt like a mofo to walk on for the first 3 weeks after the injury. Now, I still have pain in that ankle/foot and it varies. Instead being able to walk straight, now I walk with a slight goofy walk, not quite a limp, but not straight as before. In the mornings when I first get up, sometimes I am barely able to walk. I would love to go to the doctor to get my foot sorted out, but in doing so is unaffordable, despite the fact that I am a US citizen that holds a full-time job.
I have gone to work running a fever, barely able to breathe, and was ill enough that if I had been working for a larger employer, I probably would have been sent home. Because I can't afford to miss a day of work, and because this is a very small operation with few employees (less than 4), I can't just take a day off for the sake of taking the day off.
Now, if insurance were made mandatory - there had better be an affordable option out there that is income based and will cover the basics such as up to three emergency room visits per year, an annual check-up at the GP, a dental checkup every 6 months, and an annual eye exam and annual hearing exam if you are medically documented as being d/hh. Also, I would like to see up to 5 outpatient clinic visits per year. These would be for non-emegergency medical treatment such as if you have a bad flu, ER follow-ups, etc. Anything beyond these limits and I wouldn't mind having a small co-pay of say $30 for each visit above the 5 covered by the mandated insurance. As for prescription - if a generic drug alternative is available it will be given. Also, the first 5 prescriptions would be filled free of charge, anything above that would be a small co-pay of $5-15.
When I talk about these limits and all, I am saying the mandated option would limit us to x-amout per 12 month period, after that we would have a small co-pay. I would be willing to pay an income-based monthly or annual premium to cover this and I'm low-income.
It's hard for a single individual to be able to hammer out all of the specific details of such a plan, but I believe if all sides of this debate gave a little bit, we might actually have a pretty decent health-care reform plan going on.
Also, we need to keep some private insurance companies around and also, there needs to be more research into hospitals over-billing insurance companies and those who do will be put on probation for the offense or face being taken over by the state (financially) and face fines and other penalties. A hospital can still be profitable without over-billing patients and insurance companies.
If I had a major catastrophe happen to me requiring an extended hospital stay and maybe even surgery - I would be screwed.
I have generally found that if you are not insured and are low-income, the hospital will give you the absolute most basic care required by law and then release you. IE - if I had kidney stones - they would just take an xray to see how bad it is, give me some pain killers and maybe a prescription for some Tylenol 3s/Codeine and tell me to ride it out.
If I were fully insured and made a high level of income - they would probably take several xrays, MRIs, and CAT scans to determine the severity of it, keep me for observation and give me all the morphine I want while in the hospital and release me with some prescription high powered narcotic pain killers with an appointment to follow-up in 7 days.
This is what my life is like: I have injured myself while on the job. Because my employer is a small operation with less than 4 employees, they are not obligated to provide insurance of any sort. Well, I fell off the slats in the chicken house and bungled up my ankle. It turned blue and was swollen for about 3 days. It hurt like a mofo to walk on for the first 3 weeks after the injury. Now, I still have pain in that ankle/foot and it varies. Instead being able to walk straight, now I walk with a slight goofy walk, not quite a limp, but not straight as before. In the mornings when I first get up, sometimes I am barely able to walk. I would love to go to the doctor to get my foot sorted out, but in doing so is unaffordable, despite the fact that I am a US citizen that holds a full-time job.
I have gone to work running a fever, barely able to breathe, and was ill enough that if I had been working for a larger employer, I probably would have been sent home. Because I can't afford to miss a day of work, and because this is a very small operation with few employees (less than 4), I can't just take a day off for the sake of taking the day off.
Now, if insurance were made mandatory - there had better be an affordable option out there that is income based and will cover the basics such as up to three emergency room visits per year, an annual check-up at the GP, a dental checkup every 6 months, and an annual eye exam and annual hearing exam if you are medically documented as being d/hh. Also, I would like to see up to 5 outpatient clinic visits per year. These would be for non-emegergency medical treatment such as if you have a bad flu, ER follow-ups, etc. Anything beyond these limits and I wouldn't mind having a small co-pay of say $30 for each visit above the 5 covered by the mandated insurance. As for prescription - if a generic drug alternative is available it will be given. Also, the first 5 prescriptions would be filled free of charge, anything above that would be a small co-pay of $5-15.
When I talk about these limits and all, I am saying the mandated option would limit us to x-amout per 12 month period, after that we would have a small co-pay. I would be willing to pay an income-based monthly or annual premium to cover this and I'm low-income.
It's hard for a single individual to be able to hammer out all of the specific details of such a plan, but I believe if all sides of this debate gave a little bit, we might actually have a pretty decent health-care reform plan going on.
Also, we need to keep some private insurance companies around and also, there needs to be more research into hospitals over-billing insurance companies and those who do will be put on probation for the offense or face being taken over by the state (financially) and face fines and other penalties. A hospital can still be profitable without over-billing patients and insurance companies.
If I had a major catastrophe happen to me requiring an extended hospital stay and maybe even surgery - I would be screwed.
I have generally found that if you are not insured and are low-income, the hospital will give you the absolute most basic care required by law and then release you. IE - if I had kidney stones - they would just take an xray to see how bad it is, give me some pain killers and maybe a prescription for some Tylenol 3s/Codeine and tell me to ride it out.
If I were fully insured and made a high level of income - they would probably take several xrays, MRIs, and CAT scans to determine the severity of it, keep me for observation and give me all the morphine I want while in the hospital and release me with some prescription high powered narcotic pain killers with an appointment to follow-up in 7 days.