Price Tag Ouch

With the new year comes a new deductible to meet. My employers cut benefits again. And although I try to do the responsible thing and have double insurance for my daughter because of her severe rheumatoid arthritis, insurance and pharmacies play games. That said, only one insurance is covering my daughter's medication and I have to pay full price until the deductible is met. The bill is over $1100 for just one month's supply. I'll have to pay full price for the next three months. I might be able to achieve some reimbursement from the secondary insurance, but it's so stinking hard to come up with the out-of-pocket costs initially.

Thinking about our healthcare system, I have some insight into the many, many problems with it. For all my capitalist ideas, I just don't think that healthcare should be a luxury that one has to afford as if it's comparable to dining out or traveling. People need good health to be productive members of society, to be contributing tax payers. Yes, many make poor health choices, but many do not--things just happen and people need help with healthcare. Insurances do a piss-poor job, spending astronomical amounts in overhead, paperwork and legal "blah, blah, blah" and it's ultimately the consumers (the patient and hospitals) that absorb the costs. There's some guy in an office making millions for declining medical necessities. Additionally, we just can't sit by and let people die or suffer because they can't afford healthcare. That's not what a progressed, civilized society does. SOMETHING needs to be done about it, but I'm at a loss for what that is exactly.

I have a lot of reservations about Obama's healthcare reform. A lot. I'm not his biggest fan. But I am hoping that it will bring the change that we need or at least start us in the right direction.