I know there are many STRONG opinions on the health care debate. I am not for a government run health care system but I am ALL FOR reform. I hate all of the “Most people who want health care have it” statements because that simply is not true. A 12 year old kid died in Baltimore our last year there because of a tooth ach turned infection. What happened was his single mother (without dental insurance) tried to give him pain killers while she saved money to take him in to the dentist. When he got ill she took him to the ER and HE DIED from the infection! This is not a made up story – it was all over the news and it is real. My brother (a white middle class fellow – while the B-more kid was black) had the SAME infection but had it fixed and lived. In fact, my father got the statement and just ONE bag of the IV treatment was $25,000!! No joke. But Mike’s insurance paid for it. I am not playing any race card here, just stating that everyone I hear complaining saying that “people who want health insurance have it” does not see the poverty that exists in our own nation and all the ones I have heard make these remarks are in fact white middle class people.
I can only speak for myself (and I’ve told some of you this before) but when Rob started school and I was home with Malachi and only the baby qualified for medical care. Making $10,000 annually, neither Rob nor I qualified. Sure, if we had walked into an ER we'd most likely be treated but simple tests and care would be hundreds if not thousands of dollars that would impossible for us to pay back. We were hard working doing what they tell you to do "Go to college, better yourself" and we didn't qualify. We were both without insurance for years (and that was scary).
AND the closest place I was allowed to fill any prescriptions for Malachi was an hour away and many times I honesty could not come up with the gas money to get there. Do you know what it feels like to look at your sick child and have to wait for pay day to give them the medicine they need? It is torture that I still grieve, still cry about.
I know this next statement will piss people off but here goes anyway: Why is it that Christians will fund war with billons of dollars that kills thousands but won’t pay $20 to help a fellow American (neighbor) get well? Seems like we’re most concern with ourselves and our way of life than our fellow man/woman.
Please comment if you want but no stats or scare tactics, especially since 43.7% of stats are made up. I want to hear YOUR experience not what you’ve heard.
“If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor he too will cry out and not be answered.” – Proverbs 21:13
6 comments:
12-year-old uninsured Maryland boy dies of tooth decay
Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday. A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him. If his mother had been insured. If his family had not lost its Medicaid. If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find. If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.
By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.
Deamonte's death and the ultimate cost of his care, which could total more than $250,000, underscore an often-overlooked concern in the debate over universal health coverage: dental care. Some poor children have no dental coverage at all. Others travel three hours to find a dentist willing to take Medicaid patients and accept the incumbent paperwork. And some, including Deamonte's brother, get in for a tooth cleaning but have trouble securing an oral surgeon to fix deeper problems.
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"I certainly hope the state agencies responsible for making sure these children have dental care take note so that Deamonte didn't die in vain," said Laurie Norris, a lawyer for the Baltimore-based Public Justice Center who tried to help the Driver family. "They know there is a problem, and they have not devoted adequate resources to solving it."
This boy had two operations and hospitalization after the tooth was a problem. I wonder was it available before that?
I understand where you are comming from, but from the other side of the fence. We are self employed. Do you know we "the christians" who do pay for many others. Also pay for this mess as well? Self employed people are robbed by healthcare. Can you imagine paying $800.00 a month for healthcare? Plus $50.00 copay's and $70.00 perscriptions? We do.
The bottom line is I would drive an hour to eliminate that cost and it looks like I am going to. I am going back to work at the Harrisburg Airport diving one hour each way everyday. Just so my family can benifit from the goverment insurance plan.
Black or White
It's all about choices.
This issue is about as settled as Roe vs Wade. Who the hell are those people anyway? Thanks for letting me vent. I appriciate your honesty as well.
Lory
Yeah - I know what you are saying but we pay $1,500 for health insurance MONTHLY. So I know that side too. We make it happen as you and Glen do and we pay for others as you and Glen do - but there needs to be a change so that maybe part of your $800 and part of my $1500 can go back into our pockets and go towards helping our fellow man.
And Lory I agree with you 100% that self-employed people get screwed. I owned my own business before I had children and absolutely got screwed! I would like to see change along the lines of health insurance and drug company competition and reform.
I agree that there needs to be change in the health care industry, and I agree that it should not be a government run program. So the question leads itself, what can be done? The main reason, from what I have looked into, that health insurance is so expensive is because of sueing. Most of what we pay towards insurance goes to cover sueing cases. There is so much money going into those cases! That is just crazy to think about! There are so many issues with the drug companies and sueing, but what can be done about it? Sometimes it is an issue of people being sue-crazy, and sometimes it is an issue of drugs causing a lot more problems than they fix. Either way, there is a lot of money going into these cases! I think that would be a good place for reform to start.
When I was in school I had to have insurance, the school required it. I used my student aid money to cover it, as I didn't make enough for it myself. I got it through the school, as it was cheaper. I thought all schools required this? I am surprised that Rob's didn't.
I also know several people that want health insurance and can't afford it. I've never heard that statement about how if they want it they'll have it. That is just plain ridiculous!
I am sorry that your experience with Christians has shown you that most don't help others. Mine has been a different experience. Most of the Christians I've known have given very generously to help people for all kinds of reasons, and very often giving when they have little to give, either by the time, money, or whatever resources they have. Be encouraged that they are out there, and they are growing in numbers! I am glad to see, that as things have gotten tight these last few years, I have seen the giving and helping, and the number of people giving and helping increase as well. There is compassion growing in the heart of the church for people, at least, in the hearts of the church people that I am connected with. I hope it is happening in other places as well, though.
Wow. I somehow missed the art! Beautiful!
Love you all and your opinions. I think I understand the angle
Christian is coming from. We just had my sister in law visit from Alabama and she COULD NOT BELIEVE that my mother (a Pennsylvania resident, campaigned hard for Obama.) I fessed up and said that I also had gone door to door in PA the weekend before the election and then explained why. We are christian women who believe that we are our brother's keeper and feel that that spirit has been missing from the public dialogue in the recent years. I am all for big business and people being successful but when.......
Insurance company profits rise 428% from 2000-2007 and we have millions of uninsured people living in the most prosperous country in the world, something is very wrong.
My husband is in the insurance business and there is a reason for the recent profits of the insurance companies. It is called the "Katrina Effect". After the hurricane Katrina, insurance companies jacked up there prices across the board.
I don't know all the answers, but I do know that insurance companies DO NOT want a public option, they will pour lots of their recent profits into fighting it, because they don't want the competition or anything that will interfere with their ability to make future record profits.
I personally find it obscene that an industry can raise their profits 428% in seven years and then use that money to make sure that a significant number of our population remains uninsured, small businesses get hammered, people are stuck in jobs they don't want because they have to keep their insurance, etc.
This is America, we can do better than this.
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