I am the son of an insurance sales person. Affordable health care, then and now, was always available. Put me on the ‘Haves’ team. We ‘haves’ worry about: who is going to pay for the new health care plan? Will our insurance costs go up? Will we be forced to choose another physician? Will our grandchildren face a huge federal deficit? The ‘haves’ have it rough.
The ‘have not’s’ are the winners of the new health care plan. According to a recent Harvard study, an estimated 45,000 people die in America each year primarily due to a lack of health care coverage. That is more than those who die from kidney disease. That is three times the size of the city of my birth – each year!
While much of the congressional debate dealt with right-to-life, consider how many expectant mothers do not receive quality prenatal care because their insurance company blocked coverage due to a pre-existing condition – a previous pregnancy. Pre-existing condition rules will no longer prevent access to quality health.
An estimated 57% of the employees of the world’s largest public company – Wal-Mart – are uninsured. When ill, government pays or they figure it out on their own. In the future Wal-Mart will be incented to offer better insurance or face penalties. Will their imported plastic prices go up? Maybe! Perhaps there will be a more even playing field in the retail industry.
Socialism! America is becoming European! The U.S. will soon be bankrupt! Those are the cries from the ‘haves’ who since a healthy birth always found it difficult to share their marbles. Now, the ‘have not’s’ are in the game of life and health. It’s time to share.
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Thanks for that, Mark. My brother who is a physician and my daughter, a thid year medical student both supported health care reform. A far cry from the fears of ‘socialized medicine’ I used to hear from my father when I was young.