A totally exciting day

When it comes to the ongoing debate about health care reform in this country I think I have been pretty clear that I pretty much stand on the side of total reformation up to and including complete socialized medicine.  Don’t misunderstand me, I think there likely is room at the table for privatized health care as an option, perhaps even a significant option.  However, I do think that the current state of health care in this country is a disaster.

I don’t think that health care providers, and by that I am referring to doctors, nurses, technicians or others who work in the health care industry are entirely or maybe even significantly at blame for the mess we are in.  Quite to the contrary I think the lion’s share of the blame lay entirely on corporations and the insurance companies those corporations hide behind.  When you strip away the facade that has been erected you find that rather than being motivated by altruistic feelings the real motivator is greed.  I want to earn more while at the same time pay less.  I am a microcosm of greater corporations who are motivated in the same way.  They want to earn more but pay less.  Income and expense.  Increase the income while decreasing the expense side of the books.

I’ve written previously about friends, fellow cancer survivors, I have at work.  One, Roxi, has been fighting her own battle with cancer for some time now.  It has been devastating physically, emotionally and financially.  Today I found out that Roxi has been invited to the White House to meet President and Mrs. Obama, to share her story with them and to add to the health care dialog.  I am absolutely delighted and quite proud of Roxi.  She will be an excellent voice for the cause.

I can’t quote exact numbers as I’m not privy to them but it has been my understanding from Roxi that last year alone just about half her income was consumed by medical bills, even with a company provided health insurance plan.  This year the company contracted a new health care insurance plan which, sadly, has mostly refused to pay much if any of Roxi’s medical needs.  So restrictive are they that they will not even pay for the routine cancer screenings she must have.  She must have these because her cancer has came back, on multiple occasions yet fortunately, so far, the screening process uncovered the cancer each time reasonably early allowing her to be treated promptly.  She is, once again, in remission.  But because she will have to pay for the screenings herself, and expensive proposition, there will be fewer and, God forbid, should the cancer return it will have longer to establish itself and do damage to her body.

Why would a company choose an insurance provider who provided a lesser level of care for the company’s employees?  Well, money of course.  Providing insurance coverage to employees is a significant piece of the price of doing business.  It is or can be a very significant expense for the company to shoulder.  Would it be fair to judge how a corporation values of its most prized asset, its employees, based on the extent to which the corporation will go to provide for those employees?  I think so.  I think this problem is prevalent across the corporate world in this country.

But not every corporation is stingy with the health and lives of its employees.  I chose not to join the health plan that Roxi belongs to.  That’s because, unlike Roxi, I am married and my wife’s employer’s health care plan is far superior to the company that Roxi and I work for.  How superior you might ask?  Well, remember that for Roxi she had to pay around half of her income for her health care over the past year and that didn’t pay for all of it.  She has accumulated an enormous debt.  As for me, I had pretty similar health requirements that Roxi did and the cost were every bit as astronomical as hers, in my case to the tune of just about $100,000.  But the big difference is that the insurance plan I have covered 100% of my medical needs, sans the relatively inexpensive per-visit co-pays.

But so it is in our profit driven corporate centered nation.  It isn’t entirely about who you are so much as how you are valued by your company.  There is no base parity out there.  I’m sorry, having a plastic card in your wallet imprinted with the name of some insurance company is not parity.  No, the measure of parity should be how you are treated within your health plan in comparison to someone in another plan.

That is one area of reform I would like to see.  A leveling of the playing field or at the very least the establishment of a base expectation of provided services.  Call it a right if you will but it is, in my heart, an undeniable right of every citizen of this country to be provided with a level of health care necessary to sustain their life.  No corporation, no insurance company, no individual or no government should be allowed to do anything less than the very best possible for each and every employee they have.  And by extension we as responsible citizens do have the responsibility to care for our neighbors when our neighbors need our care just as much as we have the right to count on our neighbors to care for us should that need arise.

So Roxi is off to meet the President of the United States.  There is some debate about whether the company will give her the day off and if they do whether they will pay her for it.  I don’t suppose that matters much in the long run.  The more important thing is that Roxi be allowed to add her voice to the dialogue, that she be allowed to pull the conversation away from political and corporate maneuvering and give a real human face for us to focus on as we continue working towards health care reform.

I am proud of you Roxi.  I know you’ll do us proud.  Go you!