Ed. Note: Cameron Feng submitted this entry for our 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Prizes include $150 in cash, free tickets to our Annual Gala, and by today, Sept. 30 9:30p PT! Like in the Oscars, You the Reader will then get to choose the winners. More details to come.

The current healthcare system in America is ridiculous. Not only is it unaffordable, it is selfish. For too long, healthcare in America has been the most expensive and lowest in quality when compared to most industrialized countries. Yet, America is leading the world in biomedical research and development. My recent experience with health insurance has given me a personal reason to advocate for healthcare reform in the United States.

Around February of this year, my father lost his job when Circuit City was forced to shut down, and along with that, he lost the health insurance for our family. This could not have happened at a worst time for me. I was and am still in the process of having my class three underbite corrected. Having gone through twenty years with an underbite, it still bothers me that I am not able to chew and enunciate properly. The first poses a medical problem that will only prove to cause problems as I age and the latter affects not only my self-confidence to not be able to articulate my thoughts, but has held me back from taking on authoritative roles past the Internal Vice President position in organizations I have been involved in. My goal to become a doctor became the final factor that convinced me to undergo surgery for the correction, and what better time to do so than right before achieving my bachelor’s degree?

I first consulted a maxillofacial surgeon in September 2008 when I still had health insurance who presented to me the steps that I would need to go through before surgery should take place. This included getting braces for $2,400 and having all four of my wisdom teeth removed, adding another $600 to my lifetime investment of a better smile, greater self-confidence, fewer jaw problems, and understandable speech. He also told me that the hospital would be able to get the insurance to cover most of the surgical costs.

Unfortunately, two months after getting my braces, my family and I lost our health insurance. Having already spent $2,400 on the braces that would only make my underbite worse, but align my teeth for surgery, I would continue my journey. Having my wisdom teeth removed in the end of July 2009 gave me another six months before the last and final step: surgery. Already without health insurance for six months, I started applying. However, I was surprised to have found my applications denied automatically. I was in utter disbelieve when the reason I was given was that my medical history showed that I had seen a maxillofacial surgeon. Because my medical history demonstrated that I was thinking about surgery, I would not be granted the peace of mind of being medically insured. Even though I needed the surgery, insurance companies would rather turn their heads and not risk having to pay for the costs. It is appalling and frightening that healthcare companies would prioritize profit over the health and quality of life of the American citizen.

– Cameron Feng

Ed. Note: Katherine Yau submitted this entry for our 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Prizes include $150 in cash, free tickets to our Annual Gala, and by Sept. 30 9:30p PT! Like in the Oscars, You the Reader will then get to choose the winners. More details to come.

In regards to the controversy nursing the issue of national health care, we need to reconsider what we perceive “quality” and “affordable” to mean. With a political body made up of irreconcilable bipartisan agenda, and progress becoming synonymous with stunt antics, (Will the real Senator Wilson, please sit down?) compromise will be not only decidedly difficult, but deeply disappointing to both sides of the health war.

The argument abridged: Health insurance companies make major boot lickin’ bank from the systematic denial of medical fee coverage to sick, and “potentially sick” people. As a result, 47 million people are denied the aid of a single federal dime to help them pay off a prescription for Singular to ease them from suffocating from a raging case of asthma, (a month’s supply of which runs up to about $116.) Not a dollar to go to the $3,000 it takes to X-ray and slap a cast around their kid’s broken arm, or a cent for the woman with a malignant tumor in her breast, where chemotherapy alone will set her back $20,000 at minimum.

Camp Elephante wants to Keep Things the Way They Are. “Go Capitalism! Go USA!” is the general groaning mantra. Sometimes someone grips a picture of Obama sporting a Hitler moustache. (“Socialism, bahumbug.”) Here’s the thing: where American health care is concerned, Capitalism operates on capitalizing off the poor, the weak and the dying.

Yet while most of the country finds it easy to lean left and spit on their conservative neighbors, (a position I find all too cozy-comfortable) we need to realize both sides have their points. With a “public option”, which will give everyone an equal opportunity for healthcare, it will also inevitably buy out private insurance companies. This means while everyone gets the same treatment, there is a wealth distribution which will make certain medications and procedures unavailable to anybody. To what extent will this barrier reach? Under the umbrella of the public option, would Singular or chemotherapy be available to anyone?

To me, the responsibility of our representatives is to negotiate a medium between broad and small government: the ongoing argument of US politics since the days of Jefferson and Madison. To not sacrifice quality with affordability.

My story is not as dire as the deplorable situations many have found themselves in as a result of the glaring holes in this country’s health care system. As a college student in California, while being unable to register as a full time student due to the recent bloody budget cuts on public education systems statewide, I was also in danger of being ineligible for health insurance. Which is really, really bad because, well, I’m on a lot of medication. So on a personal note, while I am for universal health care, I am admittedly wary of what kind of changes will be made to my own medicinal regimen. (And let’s just say, it’s probably in the best interest of the public at large, if I keep to that regimen.)

– Katherine Yau

Ed. Note: Sam Krishnan submitted this entry for our 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Prizes include $150 in cash, free tickets to our Annual Gala, and by Sept. 30 9:30p PT! Like in the Oscars, You the Reader will then get to choose the winners. More details to come.

By now, we can see that we are going to have some kind of health care legislation this year. Most likely, it will contain a universal mandate, subsidies to help achieve the mandate and the banning of practices such as denying insurance to those with pre-existing conditions. There will also be health exchanges set up for easy comparison shopping of heath insurance plans and perhaps a government option though the chances of that is looking slimmer by the day. All of these are just the first steps in the right direction towards ensuring affordable quality healthcare coverage for all.

The one thing that none of what has been proposed will achieve is reducing the cost of medical care. The cost of medical care has been increasing at a higher rate than inflation for some time now and this trend will render any comprehensive health care planning unworkable. Therefore, the next stage of health care reform efforts needs to address this issue head on.

First, to increase access to affordable preventive care, the number of family practitioners needs to be increased. This can be done in two ways. One is to allow for increased immigration of FP doctors. The other is to make it financially worthwhile for doctors to practice family medicine. This can be done by the federal government creating a loan forgiveness program for those medical students who go in to family practice. Not having a loan burden will make many medical students more willing to forgo the cash rich fields of plastic surgery or dermatology.
The second way to reduce costs is to create a system of “no-fault insurance” like that in many parts of Europe to replace the current mal-practice insurance system which is driving many doctors insane. Under the new system, except for cases of negligence, a medical review board will pay for the cost of fixing the effects of accidents that happen in medicine. This should also be accompanied by capping lawyer’s fees for pain and suffering claims. This will drive many ambulance chasers out of the system and reduce costs considerably.

The third way is to reduce the administrative burdens of medical tourism. Countries such as Costa Rica are very good at providing cost effective elective surgeries for our population. People who use this option should be given incentives such as the elimination of deductibles. This will encourage more people to consider the lower cost option. A further step would be to prevent lawsuits against these foreign hospitals from taking place in U.S. courts.

These are a few modest steps that will over the long haul significantly reduce the costs of healthcare. Most importantly, they are practical steps that can be done without significant legislative hurdles except perhaps for the no-fault insurance option. Not controlling costs will doom any effort at reforming a broken down system and this deserves our attention as well.

– Sam Krishnan

Ed. Note: Jessica Lum submitted this entry for our 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Prizes include $150 in cash, free tickets to our Annual Gala, and by Sept. 25! Like in the Oscars, You the Reader will then get to choose the winners. More details to come.

I’m a 22-year-old stage 4 cancer patient. I just graduated from college. I was diagnosed with incurable rare cancer, pheochromocytoma, in Dec 2008. I’m hanging in a limbo right now–still eligible for half-benefits under my retired mom’s state worker coverage, and currently unemployed. And for a while during my illness, I was unemployable, because I was unable to walk from radiation and too weak from chemotherapy. I lose my insurance coverage under my mother when I turn 23, in less than 10 months.

Here’s a link to something I blogged recently about my cost of living…literally.

– Jessica Lum

Ed. Note: “Anonymous” submitted this entry for our 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Prizes include $150 in cash, free tickets to our Annual Gala, and by Sept. 25! Like in the Oscars, You the Reader will then get to choose the winners. More details to come.

1. Make provision of ‘equal access to high quality health care for all persons in the world a legal, social, and moral obligation for all public and private entities in the world.
2. Set up a global universal health care program with multiple components whose users, workers, and policymakers have equal voices in shaping it over time through democratic processes.
3. Provide this new program with sufficient funds to carry out its mission and require that it develop a strategic plan to eliminate all illnesses for which cures already exist within 10 years.
4. Invest in further research on health, promote preventive health care practices, and engage in public health education campaigns, all of which are democratically accountable, pursuing other goals such as environmentally sustainable development, cost control, and the elimination of border controls where necessary, again through democratic processes.
5. Scratch head, considering “Why hasn’t this happened already? The economic resources are available.”; Note connection to the answer to “Why will nothing like suggestions 1 through 4 be selected as the winner of $100 tickets to an Asian American progressive organisation’s fundraiser?” Repeat if necessary.

– “Anonymous”

Ed. Note: Jenny Jiang submitted this entry for our 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Prizes include $150 in cash, free tickets to our Annual Gala, and by Sept. 25! Like in the Oscars, You the Reader will then get to choose the winners. More details to come.

The recent health care debate has been dominated by fear that reform will cost too much, result in the big government takeover of health care, and limit consumer choices.  

I think the naysayers need to be reminded of the higher cost of inaction:

• 46 million Americans do not have health insurance. This is a life and death issue for many. A study published last week reported that 45,000 Americans die annually because they do not have insurance:
  

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year — one every 12 minutes — in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday. "We’re losing more Americans every day because of inaction … than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.

  In the end, it will cost everyone more if we do not pass the much-needed reforms.

• Health care costs have become unsustainable and unaffordable for American businesses and individuals. According to a recent study, employers are paying $13,000 for an average family premium, a 131% increase over the past decade. Health care coverage now outpaces both inflation (28% in past 10 years) and wage increases (38% in past 10 years). At this rate, family premiums will cost more than $24,000 in 10 years.
• Just because you have insurance does not mean you are fully covered. Six out of 10 bankruptcies in the United States are medically-related. Of those, nearly 8 out of 10 have private insurance. Unfortunately, most people think they’re "safe" with their insurance until they become sick. Not only can some insurance companies deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, the insurance companies can also chose to not renew your coverage after your contract expires.

"For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection. Most of us have policies with so many loopholes, co-payments, and deductibles that illness can put you in the poorhouse," said [the study's] lead author David Himmelstein. "Unless you’re Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy."

The current health insurance system is costing consumers more while giving them less choices and less control over their health care. This is why we need real reform and real change.

Here are three principles that I think should be adopted in any reform package:

• Everyone should be required to purchase health insurance, either from private insurers, non-profit cooperatives or a government option.
• But if everyone is required to buy insurance, then we need to have a public option to keep the private insurers honest. (I mean, who would trust private insurers given their history in gouging consumers?) With a government option, private insurers will actually have to be competitive and treat consumers well if they want to stay in business.
• All insurers – private, public, non-profit – should be prohibited from denying or dropping coverage for people with pre-existing conditions.

– Jenny Jiang

Ed. Note: Christine submitted this entry for our 2009 Healthcare Blogathon. Prizes include $150 in cash, free tickets to our Annual Gala, and by Sept. 25! Like in the Oscars, You the Reader will then get to choose the winners. More details to come.

There’s no way around it. We need to have a single payer system and tax individuals so that everyone is sharing in this pool. Why not look to countries where the system works and use them as examples? We can still keep the insurance companies around for those who want more, but it needs to be available for everyone. No one should have to worry about going into bankruptcy because they get sick. Talk about adding stress to an already stressful situation.

– Christine