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America’s Health Care System Killing Us |
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More than 13,000 people around the country have participated in the AFL-CIO/Working America 2008 Health Care for America Survey, and more than 3,900 have submitted their own personal stories since the survey was launched a little more than a week ago.
The survey offers a unique opportunity for working families to make our voices heard on the cost of health insurance, quality of health care, access to prescription drugs and the gamut of health care problems we all face—and impress upon candidates for the White House, Congress and all public offices just how important health care is as a voting issue in 2008.
The survey results will be given to the presidential, congressional, state and local candidates to ensure that candidates at every level will understand what working families are experiencing. (Check out a comparison of 2008 presidential candidates’ health care proposals here.)
Along with specific questions on affordability and quality, experiences with insurance companies, hospitals and doctors and suggested remedies, the survey gives you the chance to tell your own story. (Click here to fill out the survey and tell your health care story. You can vote here on the stories you think make the most impact.)
Here are some samples.
In Jacksonville, Fla., Pamela, a former Flight Attendant (AFA-CWA) member, was the victim of two traffic accidents that have left her disabled and in need of spinal surgery. She says her experience has shown her
today’s insurers are there to make a profit off your illness. They make promises and don’t deliver on coverage…Poverty is my friend now. I have no money for the medical costs because of two horrible accidents that were no fault of my own. The insurance companies basically leave you on your own. All they care about is the money.
From Los Angeles, Teri writes how the health care system, especially insurers, failed both her mother and first husband. Her mother’s insurer greatly reduced her coverage and dropped her because “she made too many claims.” By the time an attorney forced the insurance company to pay for cancer treatment, her mother had died. Meanwhile, Teri’s husband had a family history of heart disease, so their insurance provider forced him to sign a waiver forgoing heart-related claims.
He started having fainting spells and dizziness. Being a nurse, I was worried that indeed he may have a cardio issue. They turned him away, stating he was too young to fit any cardio profiles. Six weeks later, he dropped dead of a massive coronary.
Bill in Washington teaches at a community college and prays he doesn’t get seriously ill until he is eligible for Medicare:
I now find myself at age 58 without health insurance. Any plan that I might choose to purchase outright carries an impossible deductible and a premium that is 70–80 percent of my mortgage payment!! So now I avoid preventative treatment and pray that I never get seriously ill. My only hope is the incoming Democratic presidency and congressional enactment of a Universal Health Care Bill, or hold on for eight years until I’m Medicare eligible. Or take my college degrees, certifications and 25 years of professional experience to another country.
Many union members have submitted comments similar to those of Andrew, a Plumber and Pipe Fitter (UA) in Minnesota:
I’m one of the fortunate ones who has good insurance through my union affiliation.
In Wisconsin, Electrical Worker (IBEW) Charles echoes that sentiment:
I am currently going through cancer and have 1 more chemo to go. Thank God I joined a union some years back to be able to cover most of the costs associated with the illness. If I hadn’t, I’m sure it would be a matter of bankruptcy. While working no-union, I had a bruised heel, and the medical costs almost sent me there.
Click here to find out more about the AFL-CIO’s Health Care Campaign to win secure, high-quality, affordable health care for all.
5 Comments
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All you Obama supporters out there, please write, call and email Senator Obama and demand that he revise his health care plan so it is truly Universal.
Thank You,
Il vostro fratello nella solidarietà
American health care is deathly ill and only some strong and sweeping changes can save it. Health care has to be made less profitable for big pharmaceutical companies, HMOs and lawyers and more affordable for millions of uninsured Americans.
Americans pay the highest prescription prices in the world. Many of these expensive prescriptions are unnecessary (and even harmful) because there are usually simpler, safer and cheaper ways to treat problems. We are bombarded by TV and magazine ads that assure you that this pill can cure your problems so people expect these “miracle pills” to take care of anything by simply swallowing a few pills. The FDA is really run by big pharma; they allow only medicines or treatments supposedly tested in the US and disregard well tested and proven safe medicines and treatments from Europe, Japan and alternative medicine. Doctors are so busy they have little time for research and reading, so they have to rely on misleading and biased information from the pharmaceutical companies.
By the way, the US and New Zealand are the only two countries that allow pharmaceutical companies to advertise on TV. As the number of ads increased, the number of prescriptions sold soared and our ratings on the world health scale dropped. Any coincidence here?
Make it unprofitable for lawyers to file nuisance suits in medical cases. Yes, there are cases where negligence on the part of the doctor or hospital should be compensated for, but we have to accept some of the risk in our medical care. Not everyone has a perfect baby, the risk of problems is small, but it is part of the risk we take as parents.
Today we have complex surgeries that can save lives or enhance the quality of life, but there is risk in any surgery, no matter how skilled the doctor, or how careful the hospital; as patients we have to take some of the risk in the chance for a better life. Things can go wrong through no fault of the medical people. All these needless and frivolous legal cases do is raise the medical insurance premiums for doctors and others so that it either forces them out of practice or raises the cost of surgeries and deliveries to cover the higher insurance premiums.
Our medical system generates an unbelievable amount of paperwork which increases the workload of medical people and limits the time they have to see patients. In this computerized world I find it amazing that there is so much duplicate paperwork for patients, doctors and others. If we can send a man to the moon, why can’t we implement a simple system for recordkeeping and billing?
If you want to read more about health issues, Mercola.com has some good articles from medical journals and other sources.
We are all equally vulnerable to illness or accident—why are we not all equally able to get the treatment and healing we need?
Americans, especially American working families, should look at health care as a right—a human right. No one should be excluded from medical care, or be forced to carry the incredible financial burden that not having medical coverage creates.
I have been blessed with good medical coverage, and have had access to life-saving treatment when I needed it. But even I struggle with some of the co-payments! I know what it’s like to choose between paying for my meds or buying groceries; I know how hard it is to decide whether to see the doctor or put gas in the car.
For those that watched PBS at 7PM Monday, Jan. 28 Jim Lehrer and Judy Woodruff’s interview with some eight “ordinary citizens”, there is deep trouble.
We who want a single payer program, the one that no remaining candidate wants, have a vertical wall to climb. All eight voiced their disatisfaction with the current health system, yet, except for one..the lady with the better understading of what affects what, all, led by the salesman, wanted to go it alone by way of more corporate run plans because they “don’t trust government.” It does not matter to these poor souls that the go it alone (the salesman’s logic. of course) is eactly what they have been getting. No . . . they want more of what they do not know is exactly what has not been working. And they want it because they are tied into cliches as a method of thought. It does not matter that Medicade is the most efficient well run health thing out there . . . they “don’t trust government”.
They should do the same thing for street care and flight regulations. They should think the same way for sewerage, and schools, and the infrastructure.
They should think the same way for postage, and food production.
Union support for Clinton and Obama has not helped with our health care porblems. Supporting candidates that would keep us tied to pharmaceuticals and for profit HMOs is no act of kindness, and taking the “practical course” in thought is just so much sewerage from the right–AND WE BUY IT!.
The reality is that over 350 labor organizations across the nation have endorsed H.R. 676 the only viable solution to the injustice in healthcare. Yet neither the AFL-CIO or the other labor group will endorse the bill. One has to ask WHY?
Obama, Clinton and Edwards are connected to the for profit HMOs and big pharmaceuticals. This is why their solution is NO solution! How can we allow these corporate parasites in control of our healthcare when tjey are the cause of all the chaos and injustice??