Insurance Reform not Healthcare Reform

How much do you pay for your total healthcare? I've been asking that question to many of our customers, curious if the average American cost I researched for my Economics 201 class was true. Instead of getting numbers, I have been getting sad stories, and scary questions, so I feel it's time to expose my opinion, I've been carefully keeping to myself lately.

I have opinions for and against the nationalized system, and I'm not naive enough to believe that the insurance corporations are not writing this bill via the leftwing in Congress. Growing up near D.C., and having an uncle who was an Economic Lawyer for the Congressional Ways and Means Committee, I learned at an early age that both sides are bought and paid for by corporations. This is why I am a registered Independent.

My dad, a retired pharmacist, has long believed we needed a nationalized healthcare system for decades. I know of many physicians who believe the same, but the problem to change over to this system breaks down to Economics. The biggest question of all should be how do you reimburse all the doctors, pharmacists, nurses, etc. for their HUGE student loans when the government knocks down their reimbursement for services?

First of all, let me get it into the open that I cannot stand the outright lies the rightwing has been scaring people with. If a national healthcare system is socialist and illegal, then we must do away with Medicare. Medicare is simply socialized medicine for retired Americans. Medicare does not pay for everything, like the rightwing likes to claim, and is not deducted from retired Americans' SSI checks. The myth that seniors have paid for Medicare is another falsehood created to make Americans believe that Medicare is not a socialized healthcare system, the deduction from your paycheck goes strictly to Social Security, and Medicare is not deducted from your Social Security.

See, what's going on is that the right wing politicians know that they cannot let the public know that Medicare is a socialist system, because their arguement against a total system would be void. They cannot get rid of Medicare, because they would have the AARP and all of their constituents that hastily had to move in their elderly parents rioting at their doors. But the spin that even Obama's watered down plan is Nazi-esc brings us to the next big question - What is more Nazi, taking care of all the sick and elderly people, or leaving them to die uninsured in their homes?

And if there is an outbreak of a serious disease, what will we do about the people with insurance that do not go to the hospital or doctor because they can't afford their copays? What about all the kids who don't even get well child check-ups, because their parents can't afford the after-insurance bill, but make too much to qualify for the Children's Healthcare Insurance Program?

Which leads me to my next big question - why healthcare reform? If we can't all agree on how it is done, then why not insurance reform? I'm not just refering to health insurance, but home, car and life insurance as well. Does your state require that you have car insurance? Ours does. Does your bank require you have homeowners insurance with your mortgage? Ours does. So if it is all required by law and policy, tell me why they should have unlimited profits.

Insurance was non-profit for decades until it was deregulated little by little through the 70's and 80's. So what are the figures? Let's go to my FAVORITE Economic resource, Executive Paywatch. The CEO of Medco (a pharmaceutical third party payor), David B. Snow made $14 million the last 2 years, while the CEO of Aetna (a health insurer) made $18 million. The CEO of State Farm made $13.66 million last year, and the CEO of MetLife made $22.4 million last year. Anyone else feeling had?

The next problem that needs to be nailed down is the aggressive marketing by Pharmaceutical companies. Whatever happened to doctors deciding you had a condition, and not you? The government banned cigarrette commercials in the 70's and should do the same for pharmaceutical companies. Many cholesterol drugs cause liver damage, but yet most of them are advertised on t.v. How is that not dangerous marketing? Doctors are not allowed to tell their patients they are fat and need to go on a low-fat diet, but are pressured by their patients to give them Lipitor. You can get a coupon for Ambien in Reader's Digest that has all the insurance processing information for a free 7 day supply. If someone forged a prescription and took it to an understaffed Rite Aid, they would get free drugs, and most likely not get caught. Scary?

Let's talk about their CEO's compensation - the CEO of Merck & Co. made $25 million last year, the CEO of Bristol-Meyers Squibb made $24 million, and the CEO of Mylan (a strictly generics producer) made $13 million. I know my doctor didn't even make close to that, and our pharmacists - pocket change compared to these market drug pushers. There are so many things that need fixed in our healthcare system, a hastily passed bill this fall will not even begin to fix. So I have written my Congressmen/women to tell them to stop the easyspeak, and get down to the real healthcare problem.

We paid over $11,000 in insurance premiums (which my employer pays 2/3), copays and your-share/non-covered services last year. How much did you pay?