Car insurance/health insurance

The victory of Respublican Scott Brown to the late Ted Kennedy's Congressional seat--held in a true 'blue' state for nearly 40 years-- has had me gloating since his election. And with the death of Democratic Senator John Murtha, the 59-41 Democratic majority enjoyed by the Dems falls to 58-41. If the special election to fill his seat also yields another Republican victory, we will send Obama and Co. an even louder message: "No, you can't!!!"

And forgive me for smiling at the headline, "Obama Admits Healthcare Reform May Die On The Hill." Again........"No, you can't."

And already I'm having great golden visions of the November election. I saw a terrific political cartoon in 1994, just after the Democrats took an astounding ass-whipping and dozens of blue states turned red. The cartoon was of Bill Clinton ala The Godfather: he woke up to find the donkey's head in bed with him. I laughed until I cried. (And while I'm on the subject of Clinton, for my readers I will once again clarify why he was impeached by the house of representatives--and, impeachment simply means he was brought up on charges, your civics lesson for the day--Bill Clinton was NOT impeached because he had an extramarital relationship with an aide. He was impeached because he LIED under OATH. You or I would be sent to jail for perjury and probably hindering prosecution and obstruction of justice for that offense. My son informed me the other day he got in trouble because of Monica Lewinsky--and I had to re-educate him. The Greenway Gulag. Reprogramming my children to the straight and narrow after liberal agenda they pick up on.)

I have heard some outcry and backlash (wailing and gnashing of teeth) on Obama and Co.'s failure to make a go at health care reform (health care ruin) in this country. They can't get the majority of us to drink the socialized medicine Kool-Aid, God be praised.

Some of the outcry I have heard--the little of it I HAVE heard--is astounding at best, moronic at worst. When I ask them don't they realize this administration wants to make it illegal to be without healthcare, punishable by a fine of $3000, what I hear is, "Well, it's the law to carry insurance on your car....."

Cars and people--with the rarest exception--are simply NOT the same. No parallel. Sorry.

Of course, I carry car insurance. Some do not. Personally, I don't care if you do or not--because my ass is covered. It's nice if you hit me and you HAVE car insurance, because then YOU have to pay YOUR deductible to have my car fixed and yours, too. If you don't, I may have to pay my deductible, but I get the money to take it to a dealership and not some hole in the wall to get it fixed. And I only have to pay $250 as opposed to ten times that amount--which is usually what the damage ends up being. If you total my car, and I dispute my insurance agent's opinion on the value of the pay-out, I can call in an independent claims adjustor, who will usually rule in my favor--and it doesn't cost me a dime to do it.

If you hit me and you don't have insurance--I have to pay my deductible to have my car fixed--but not yours. Of course, if I hit you and you don't have insurance, I have to pay to have both of our cars fixed--something I'd like to see changed. No insurance--you're left out in the cold.

Right now, those of us who HAVE health insurance are by and large being left out in the cold. For example: in December I began paying for my health insurance. Almost $100/month. I got sick last week. My insurance company still hadn't sent my permanent cards--only a temporary one--and like temporary checks--doctors' offices won't accept temporary cards. It was completely out of pocket. $120. That was before the pharmacy. And I had already paid two months into my policy. $200. So.....they got their insurance money from my check, $120 more at the doctor, and another $50 at the pharmacy. Yeah--I can be reimbursed. But it's going to take 6-8 weeks. That same visit, I saw a woman who spoke not a word of English--and probably never worked a day in her life in this country, and as such, hasn't paid taxes--flop down a Medicaid card and never even took out her wallet. Mad? Just a little.

And get me started on my daughter's hospital stay last year. We pay so much a month into her health insurance. First, the insurance company tried to argue that she didn't have a 'medical emergency' to warrant an ambulance. We didn't call the ambulance--the neurologist who read her lumbar puncture--that was positive for viral meningitis, did. I'm thinking that the 'M.D.' after his name probably makes him an authority as to what is and isn't an emergency--the health insurance company--run by BUSINESSMEN--emphatically is not. When he got the statement, Bill saved it for when I got home. Aetna is now very sorry they have a 24-hour customer care line. Because I called at midnight, and went so far as to ask to speak to a supervisor--who, of course wasn't there at that hour. Having gotten supervisor's number, when I called back the following morning, I quizzed him about his knowledge of meningitis and asked him if a fever of almost 104 and almost constant projectile vomiting in an eight year old sounded like a medical emergency, and did he know that seizures were a symptom of meningitis? "Sound like a medical emergency to YOU, sir??" Aetna is supposed to pay 100% of emergency care. The supervisor relented finally, saying that if a neurologist felt it necessary to call an ambulance for transport....furthermore, I told him, the care that led TO the diagnosis of it--lab fees, lumbar puncture and the 'reading' of the LP--since we were in agreement that meningitis was, in fact, an emergency, we weren't paying a dime of it. So far--we had paid almost $4,000 into our policy. We did end up paying most of the bill at Children's Hospital--for the maintenance care she received--IVs, etc.........but not the antibiotics--she was on a ceftriaxone drip for three days. All told--ambulance ride, ER fees, and the four day stay at Children's came out to nearly $10,000. We had to pay half--and that was AFTER we'd paid our deductible. The ambulance ride and the ER bill I finally convinced the insurance company to write off. The ambulance ride alone from Northside Cherokee to Scottish Rite was almost a thousand. And that totaled Cate's care for the year. Her doctors appointments and medication for the rest of the year was paid out of pocket, because her coverage was maxed out.

In spite of this--I can say that she had GOOD doctors. When we were visited on rounds--I was visited by her attending, interns, residents, med students......there was a nurse in to see about her every half hour--I could set my watch by them. The doctors and nurses at Scottish Rite are an amazing group of people, obviously dedicated to those kids. I was updated regularly about the status of her spinal tap culture--was it growing anything bacterial yet?--and the results of her PCR on the viral meningitis culture. I never had to ask.

That being said.......maybe businessmen aren't the best choice for running healthcare (my choice would be to see doctors and nurses have a say in it)--refer to my bit above about what does and does not constitute an emergency; they're not a very good judge of that--but you don't have to look far to see that the government screws up everything it gets its hands on. Healthcare would be the same.

Unlike car insurance, government run health insurance would mean politicians setting the standard of care. (None of them, to my knowledge, have M.D. after their names.) For the most part, just about every major disease and/or condition--for lack of a better term--has a protocol of treatment. Cancer, diabetes, MS, heart disease, pregnancy, mental illness--everything--has a set treatment, because most people respond well to those treatments.

But--medicine isn't one size fits all. Almost every day, we hear about experimental treatments....medical breakthroughs.....if life is breathed into socialized medicine in this country--kiss all of that good-bye. Because the government (and it's not really the government--it's US, the taxpayers) is not going to spend one penny more of 'their' money on experimental medicine......while by and large experimental treatments work, and work well--the government is not going to hedge its bets on something 'tried and true'. I am a perfect example of medicine not being 'one size fits all'--I hear many people say, "Oh, I took some Bendadryl to go to sleep." If I take Benadryl, I will be up for three days. Narcotic pain killers make me jittery and nervous, and if I sleep at all while taking them, I sleep for maybe two hours. The 'black box' warnings on antidepressants were made with people like me in mind. I can't take them.

Medicine will stagnate with socialized medicine--why will doctors bother to try breakthroughs the government will never use? You will pay your premiums, and you will have what the government says you can have--whether it's working or not. The aforementioned independent claims adjustor, who comes in to settle on your behalf? There isn't one in health insurance--it's only the politicians. With my car insurance--they're going to fix my car, and they're going to fix it after I've paid my deductible--and usually, they don't get one dime more out of me until they do--monthly payments aside. With health care--you're going to go to the doctor you're told to go to. And your going to pay your premiums.......and then you're going to pay out of pocket.......and whether they fix you or not is up in the air. What I mean is--with this kind of care, a person who is diagnosed with say, Phase I cervical cancer--which usually has a good prognosis--is going to waste away and die while waiting on the government to decide when she can again go to the doctor, what doctor she can see, and then be given the one-size-fits-all treatment.

And I should remind: with cars--it IS one size fits all. It either has a dent in the door or it doesn't. The frame is warped, or it isn't. The windshield is busted out or it isn't.

Socialized health care--if you take it apart and look at it piece by piece--is nothing more and nothing less than population control. I also believe--because with socialized medicine, doctors work for the government--it's a means of putting a stop to so many medical malpractice suits. Even if it's proven that another course of treatment--one other than the government, who, through socialized medicine would have mandated--would have saved you or your loved one--you can't sue the federal government.

I don't like the idea of perfect strangers--in this case, greedy politicians--telling me what is good for me. Telling me how my money is best spent, and with what doctor.

So please--no more parallels between mandated health insurance being the same as mandated car insurance. You can't even call it apples and oranges--because even if it was apples and oranges, at least we could say that both are fruits......