Today, someone sent me to a CNN webpage that reported on four individuals -- Karen Scheuerman, Mary Pitman, Douglas Wolk, and Lita Epstein -- that are pleased as pink about Obamacare. Go and look for yourself and then come back to this blog, because I am going ask the questions below that CNN, apparently, failed to ask.
Go here: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/news/1004/gallery.health_care_real_people/index.html
For Karen Scheuerman – How much money have you saved because you pay premium for a $10,000 plan, versus first dollar coverage? It certainly should be enough to pay for necessary preventive services. What preventive services are you unable to afford, given how much you are saving?
Do you sincerely believe that a health insurance plan offered through a Health Insurance Exchange will save you money? Based on what data? And those subsidies you expect to receive, are they free? I mean, does someone else have to pay them so you can pay less? I note that you are in some kind of financial advisory business. Will you be advising your clients that getting on the dole is a wise strategy?
Mary Pitman – I see that you are willing to pay for preventive care, but not for catastrophic coverage. What part of “insurance” do you fail to understand? Insurance is all about getting help for unexpected occurances, not preventive care (well, in a normal insurance market, anyways).
And you suggest the ER is the only choice for uninsured people? Are you sure, or does your town lack Community Health Centers?
Apparently you believe picking pockets is okay, as long as it is someone else’s pocket you pick. Do I have that right?
Why do you care, by the way, that people (prior to Obamacare) with health insurance have to pay more, since you are not presently insured?
You suggest that everybody will get cheaper health care. That is an interesting theory, but I expect you will be very disappointed as health care cost continues to rise faster than CPI.
Lastly, I see that you are a healthy person, and you understand that getting healthy people into the pool is important. Why, then, haven't you jumped into the pool yet? Or are you just waiting until someone else helps to pay your premium?
Douglas Wolk – Let’s see. You are young and healthy, and apparently, you only need flu shots (I would ask you who told you that, but it would take me off course). If you only need flu shots and help for an occasional snotty nose, that might even work in one of those foreign countries (as long as you can find a family doctor willing to take your case).
Imagine, you have to pay a whopping $500 a month to insure three people. How much do you think is fair? Then I see that you prefer not to abide by the insurance contract you willingly signed that tells you up front not everything you want is covered. Let me ask you this: When you go to a restaurant and pay the menu price of a hamburger, do you get angry if the owner denies you prime rib?
About that single payer thing: As a writer you need to do more research. And are you really anxious to live in a country where the government could employ “mechanisms” to keep costs down? I wonder how that would work?
Lita Epstein – You are 57 and self-employed. Your $700 a month insurance increased to $1,200 at age 56. I am 62, self-employed, and the insurance my wife and I own just increased to $689 a month. What gives? Aha. You probably have richer coverage than I do, instead of the common sense insurance that I own.
I see you have a health plan of sorts. Looks to me like a plan that costs you more than you will ever actually spend on health care, since it is virtually useless for any catastrophic procedures.
You Four: Listen up now. Aren’t you glad that in the United States there are filthy rich people, people that make more than $200,000 year – really filthy rich – who are willing to give you some of their money? What a country.
