In the Oct. 20 issue of the Town Crier, [the author of one of the] letters to the editor asserts there is no excuse why anyone whose annual income is equal or greater than $50,000 would lack health insurance.
I must conclude he is not acquainted with pre-existing condition clauses.
Allow me to elucidate. These cover thousands of conditions, a virtual A to Z cornucopia, including everything from acne to (the) zygomatic bone. There are shoals of pre-existing exclusions above and beyond the common, major illness such as heart disease and cancer.
One would need to be a well-paid, upper echelon member of the health administrate empire, which dictates care one receives, to actually know the sheer volume. And, no, I cannot bring myself to call what we have the health care industry considering what a small percentage of us actually have anything to do with the actual caring for anyone. The majority of employment and associated costs are administrative.
Essentially anyone with a pre-existing condition does not qualify for insurance at any cost. Feel free to test it, it’s quite easy. Call any insurance carrier and apprise them you had prostate cancer in 1956, the next words you hear will be “pre-existing condition! Sorry...!” Anyone can call any insurance company, pick a random condition and see how far they get.
Quite tiresome hearing conservative ramblings on subjects about which they know nothing. As for private sector insurance, I pay $1,100 monthly to cover myself and husband. This excludes co-pays, deductibles and more. The total is a mere 25 percent of my income (and more than our mortgage).
The going rate if one is healthy. The private sector is free to charge whatever they wish.
Fortunately I am married. Quite a few single registered nurses (RN) cannot afford health coverage at all; even though they work in a field providing care [to which] they do not have access. Isn’t that special?
This doesn’t end with us. I knew an older [doctor] MD who acquired insurance via his domestic partnership with an RN [with whom] I once worked. The MD would have died medically indigent if not covered under my colleague’s insurance as he had pre-existing conditions thus no insurance available at any price.
Unless you are a state, county or federal employee, you have one option — pay insurance premiums at any cost. Then hope you never need use it. If you have a pre-existing condition and your income exceeds the value of the Ford Pinto you call home sweet home you have no options.
It would be refreshing to see a comment from someone who actually has any knowledge of the inner machination of the U.S. health administrative industry. Sorry kids, Fox news commentary doesn’t qualify.
In closing I imagine it’s easy to bandy about all the health care knowledge you lack yet hold all the answers; a platitude for everything gleaned from the vast data you’ve acquired from listening to conservative commentary and, why would you care?
Not your child, husband, parent or sibling with a few weeks left to live from late diagnoses as they never had access to health care to begin with. They are of no consequence to you; a right-wing sound bite whose suffering you will never be witness to.
Diana Desrosiers
Idyllwild
