Topeka’s U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) apparently has no empathy for someone without health insurance, even when they are standing before her in a public forum. Young mom Elizabeth Smith is a 27-year-old Ottawa, KS waitress who has a 2 1/2-year-old son and cannot afford health insurance. She has not been able to see a doctor in nearly 2 years. The only access has been through the ER, which as we know, is the most expensive way to deliver care. She went to a Town Hall Meeting to ask Rep. Jenkins for help in supporting the public option so that she and other young, poor American Mom's like her can have affordable health insurance.Here is the discussion:
Elizabeth Smith: I’m a 27 year-old single mother. I work full-time. I do not have health insurance. My employer does not provide health insurance to me and I cannot afford it privately. Why shouldn’t my government guarantee all of its citizens health care?
Jenkins: Thank you. I’m sorry, maybe you missed my opening remarks, but absolutely. That’s why we have Medicaid in the current system and that’s why under the alternative proposal we have an option for low-to-modest-income people to be able to afford health care and then we’ve got the SCHIP program for children. I think we’ve got all of the bases covered.
Audience member: She’s not covered under SCHIP!
Jenkins: OK, if you’re not then you’re the perfect example for why we need reform and why we
need it now but we have to do it right and if we can do an alternative proposal, as I’m suggesting, give you the money to go buy it in a reformed marketpace where it is affordable, that’s my preference rather than to saddle the nation with yet another government program when they can’t afford the government run programs we have.
Elizabeth Smith: I want an option that I can pay for. I work. I pay my bills. I’m not a burden on the state. I pay my taxes. So why can’t I get an affordable option. Why are you against that?
Jenkins: A government run program (laugh) is going to subsidize not only yours (laugh) but everybody in this room. So I’m not sure what we’re talking about here.
Jenkins: I think it comes down to the whole discussion of…
(The crowd erupts. Some say "What's wrong with that!" At this point, it’s safe to say even they aren’t buying Jenkins position…)
Lynn: OK folks. Let’s be respectful. UH-OH (talking over crowd). We’re gonna make time for everybody. We’re gonna all listen to each other respectfully, even if we disagree. I think
we can agree we need reforms, again it’s just how we gonna do it. I believe people should be given the opportunity to take care of themselves with an advancebale tax credit to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance.See the whole
Seems to me all the politicians and talking heads that are against the public option, or reform in general, are those who have excellent health care coverage provided by employers, and to hell with us peons
ReplyDeleteJust for sh*ts and giggles, I went online to see what coverage for myself would cost. All I have is the VA when I decide to get of my ass and sign up.
The cheapest I found was $238.00 a month. $10,000 annual deductible, does not cover doctors visits nor presecriptions. The next at $278 a month would pay 50% of doctors visits after the deductible was met.
At the high end, $787.00 per month with a $3500 deductible, 550% doctors reimbursement and a chickensh*t prescription benefit.
Damned straight we need reform and quickly
Why shouldn’t my government guarantee all of its citizens health care?
ReplyDeleteThe Government does guarantee all of it's citizens, Residents, and visitors, health care. All one has to do is go to any State or Federal hospital, they can not deny you care.
What Elisabeth Smith is wanting is to be able to be screened for preventive measures to be paid or subsidized by the American Taxpayer. Health Insurance only helps you pay for visits and limited services, unless you opt for premium insurance which does more but still doesn't cover everything, called umbrella plans. This is what Mrs. Smith can not afford.
What she should be doing is calculating what she would spend per year for her health care costs and putting that money away each month in an account that draws interest. If she could afford insurance she would be paying a minimum of $280 just for herself for basic coverage, now times that by 12 which comes out to $3360. But what if she only visits once or twice per year, her costs if she paid for it by herself would probably be much cheaper saving her money in the long run.
The problem as I see it is that to many people have the mentality of being owed something when they are not.
Dee :
ReplyDeleteObama is an extraordinary man and we have not seen the full extent of his talents.
It is a man of Reason, Professorial, Thinker, Rational, Cerebral .... and even caring and empathic ( from Empathy )
We are before a Great President, and that type of Leaders will always surprise us.
Some Solution will be achieved in Health Care.
Milenials.com
Vicente Duque
"Audience member: She’s not covered under SCHIP!"
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody know why? Was this a setup by the Dems?
What does she need to qualify for Medicaid? She may think she pays her bills but what she is really saying is that she wants others to pay a major share of her health care insurance cost through the public option. I don't think anyone understands how a public option would work, how much it would cost a mother like this one, and how much the taxpayer subsidy would be. I suspect none of us will know until the bureacrats get through writing the regulations or is there a formula in HR 3200?
pcorn have you looked at HSAs with catastrophic coverage?
ReplyDeletepcorn wrote, "Seems to me all the politicians and talking heads that are against the public option, or reform in general, are those who have excellent health care coverage provided by employers, and to hell with us peons."
ReplyDeleteGee, and here I thought you were a well-travelled consultant of some kind who flits back and forth across the border on a regular basis and travels all over the country. Doesn't sound like a peon to me.
The English words peon and peonage were derived from the Spanish word, and have a variety of meanings related to the Spanish usages, as well as some other meanings. In the English-speaking world in general, the term peon is used colloquially to mean a person with little authority, often assigned unskilled or drudgerous tasks; an underling. In this sense, peon can be used in either a derogatory or self-effacing context.
ReplyDeleteThere are several ways in which the word peon is used:
American English: in a historical and legal sense, peon generally only had the meaning of someone working in an unfree labor system (known as peonage). The word often implied debt bondage and/or indentured servitude.
How does that fit pcorn?
2008 HSA Contribution Limits, Deductibles, and Out-of-Pocket Expenses
ReplyDelete2008 offers individuals and families additional opportunities to save for current and future health care with a health savings account:
■HSA holders can choose to save up to $2,900 for an individual and $5,800 for a family (HSA holders 55 and older get to save an extra $900 which means $3,800 for an individual and $6,700 for a family) – and these contributions are 100% tax deductible from gross income.
■Minimum annual deductibles are $1,100 for self-only coverage or $2,200 for family coverage.
■Annual out-of-pocket expenses (deductibles, co-payments and other amounts, but not premiums) cannot exceed $5,600 for self-only coverage and $11,200 for family coverage.
An annual gross income of $29140 is 200% of the poverty level for a family of two in 2009. I'm surprised that the SCHIP cutoff is so low. I wonder who the father of the child is and why he is not providing health insurance for his offspring.
ReplyDeleteThe categorically needy under Medicaid include:Families who meet states’ Aid to Families with
ReplyDeleteDependent Children (AFDC) eligibility requirements
in effect on July 16, 1996.
n Pregnant women and children under age 6 whose
family income is at or below 133 % of the Federal poverty level.
n Children ages 6 to 19 with family income up to 100% of the
Federal poverty level.
n Caretakers (relatives or legal guardians who take care of children
under age 18 (or 19 if still in high school)).
Generally the Medicaid standard is more stringent than the SCHIP standard.
Here is the best article on health insurance reform anywhere. It is long but well worth reading in its entirety. I think this guy should be the next czar appointed by Obama to run health care in the United States in whatever public/private form he can fashion.
ReplyDeleteSee if this works http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care
ReplyDeleteor health care reform