MORAL VALUES PART 2

HEALTH CARE

Before I get into statistics about the sorry state of health care in the U.S., let me tell you about my own situation. In February of 2005, when I was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease after undergoing MRI’s, Pet scans, neurological and neuropsychological testing, and multiple lab work. My neurologist prescribed Aricept. My dad was on Aricept for the last two years of his life and it worked just fine. Coincidentally, that is also the length of time Aricept works for. After that, it’s effectiveness decreases.

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My neurologist gave me the packet of a months supply. I never dreamed that my Blue Cross/Blue Shield would deny me the medication. Therefore, I innocently enough took the prescription to the pharmacy to be filled a few days before I took the last dose from the packet.

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BC/BS denied me the medication. Not once, but twice. I went for about two weeks without the medication. While waiting for the denial on the second attempt, I drafted my letter to my senator, Bill Nelson (great guy by the way). Finally, I won my appeal and I had a year of freedom from fighting with the insurance company. Thank God, I won the appeal. Like my dad, I am one of the lucky folks whom Aricept not only stopped the deterioration of the brain cells by the tangles and plaques choking my brain cells, but actually improved my memory. After three months on it, I wasn’t dropping words due to forgetting what the word was I was grasping for. -

But then my neurologist, knowing that Aricept was only good temporarily, decided to ad Namenda. Blue Cross/Blue Shield went nuts! They totally would not allow me to have both. However, this also happened at a time when I was very busy and didn’t want to take the time to fight with them. -

As a federal employee, I have the same choices in health insurance that all federal employees have, including our elected officials in the house and senate. Like most of them, I chose Blue Cross/Blue Shield. It’s not so great, but it’s better in many ways than the other choices. Please believe me when I say that yes, I’m grateful for my health insurance but the state of health care in the United States is such that even if you have good health insurance, a person still has to fight for their coverage. -

Besides doing crosswords, political activism and researching issues helps keep my mind sharp. Mental masturbation is one of the best things to stave off the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. Anyway, like many, I’ve heard numbers thrown around by our presidential candidates and the news media about 8 million more Americans being without health insurance. I wondered exactly what they based this information on and over how long a period of time this 8 million joined the ranks of the uninsured. -

I went looking on the Internet and found this wonderful site: the National Coalition on Health Care, http://www.nchc.org/ and found the information I was looking for. -

I learned that 47 million Americans, or 16% of the population were without health insurance in 2005, the latest government data available. -

The number of uninsured rose1.3 million between 2004 and 2005 and increased by almost 7 million since 2000. That’s how we come up with the 8 million number. -

82 million people, about 1/3 of our population under the age of 65 spent a portion of either 2002 or 2003 without any health insurance coverage. -

More than 8 in 10 uninsured are working families. -

In 2005 nearly 15% of employees had no employer sponsored health coverage. _

This shouldn’t be happening in America. This IS a moral issue. The death rate in New Orleans from the chronic illnesses (diabetes, high blood pressure, etc…) and mental illness is 45%! I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but if a government won’t help get doctors and nurse’s into the city which is greatly depleted of health care professionals, what does this reflect about the United States as a country? -

The U.S. now ranks number 46 in worldwide mortality rates. Still births and infant mortality is rising at an alarming rate while the state presidents and vice presidents of Blue Cross/Blue shield and the HMO’s are taking home millions of dollars in bonuses. The more claims denied, the more bonuses awarded. -

Please get active if you‘re not already. Call your elected officials and demand that health care be provided for all Americans. A country of a sick citizenry is a sick country that cannot grow and prosper.