Ah, I remember like it was yesterday. Our fearless leader was trying to sell us on the "Affordable Health Care Bill." They wouldn't actually TELL us what was in the bill. Remember Pelosi's you have to pass it to find out what's in it? But we were assured that we would get to keep our doctors if we liked them, our premiums would not go up, our care would not be determined by some bureaucrat sitting in an office and a lot of people would get insurance that couldn't afford it before. We were also told that even thinking there would be death panels was ludicrous, it would never happen in this land of lollipops and candy canes.
And then reality hit. I just got an email yesterday that my insurance premiums are going up 17%. Let's do the math here. My income didn't go up 17%. My husband makes $15 an hour. In order to get a 17% raise, he would have to start earning $2.55 more, per hour. He's never gotten a raise that big. He had to threaten to leave to get $1. And I think that's the only raise he's gotten in 7 years. For his military retirement to go up 17%, he'd have to get $241.23 more a month.
When I write my budget, I take everything that comes into the household and then what I need to pay for. I divide some by a month, because my husband's retirement is a monthly income. That would be the mortgage and truck/car payments. Then I use an average 40 hour week for the estimate of his work income. Yes, he gets a retirement check but you don't actually think we can retire on it, do you? It means I don't have to go out and get an $8 an hour job, and then pay for child care for an adult handicapped person. I can't just add another few bucks in without lowering something else. What am I going to lower? Food? Gasoline? Am I going to tell the utility company, "I'm sorry, but I'm not paying the full amount you charged me because I have to have healthcare?"
Then, as if that weren't enough, I called to find out when my next appointment was with my oncologist. I just got a new doctor. We decided that instead of the shot for suppressing my calcium (I have cancer on my spine, rib and next to my breastbone), he would start me on an infusion that would strengthen my bones. But when I stopped to make the appointment, the appointment lady was on lunch break. Usually they just make it and then call me. It's tomorrow, and they hadn't called yet, so I called them. She said I'm getting 2 shots. I explained that they changed one shot to an infusion that was supposed to take about an hour. She said they changed it back. I asked why and she said it "was the channel they chose to use." I said, "Oh, so my insurance company wouldn't approve it?" She just said that she'd let someone else tell me that. So, my insurance company has written me off and decided I'm not worth the cost of the better drug, I get the cheaper one. But there are no death panels. And our doctors will be able to treat us as they see fit.
It's a good thing I think the Big Pharma is suppressing a cure for cancer. I'll continue my B17. I raised the dose. I now take a 100mg tablet at night and another one in the morning. I started getting pain on my breast bone about 3PM. I figure this ought to stop it.
I hope I have a few readers, because I must reiterate: I am on government health care. This is what you all have to look forward to. I have to wonder what standards they'll use to determine who gets what care? Is the money that they would have spent on me (as a veteran of only 4 years, and a dependent) going to someone injured in the war? Does the fact that I'm now nearing 50, and no longer in the work force play a part in it? What standard would they use on you? Is your newborn too young, with not enough money invested in him/her from the education department, etc., thus not eligible for that life saving procedure they need? Is your mom, who just turned 70 and has had a stroke, determined to be of no value to society anymore, so they're just going to give her a pain pill and let her slip away in comfort? When this happens to you, remember my story.
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