Mixed feelings on healthcare

The title of this post explains itself...and please before you comment, read my whole post. I know the healthcare bill is somewhat of a hot topic right now and is creating much debate. I know this because it is creating debate in my head. To be completely honest, I am not much into politics. I know I should be more aware of what is going on in my goverment, but sometimes it's hard to keep up. Things are changing so much. And I feel like I can't talk about it to those who really know what's going on because I will get their opinion, not the whole story. So I don't. I go on not knowing very much about what's happening and why everyone hates Obama so much.

It is my opinion that someone will always hate our president for one reason or another. I certainly don't "hate" our president, but I am also not a democrat, so I don't believe in a lot of what he's doing. I believe in "small government." I don't think the government should have a hand in EVERYTHING we do. I certainly don't think they should be the ones to FORCE everyone to have healthcare.

With that said, I still have mixed feelings on the healthcare reform. I DON'T like the fact that I am paying for someone else's health insurance in ANY way (this is my understanding of what will happen- if I am wrong please let me know). I DON'T like being fined $695 if I don't have health insurance. I certainly don't like feeling like I am trapped in a corner.

However, I do like the fact that starting in 2014, when most of this will start, insurance companies cannot deny based on pre-existing conditions.

Let me explain.

My husband technically has a pre-exisitng condition.

You wouldn't know by looking at him.

He's not sick.

He can work.

He can drive.

Thanks to 3 little pills a day filled with carbatrol.

Chad started having seizures when he was very young. It took his paretns and many doctors a while to figure out how to control them with medication.

So since Chad was very young he has taken his medication. He only ever has a seizure when he DOESN'T take his medication. He has had ONE seizure in the time we have been married. He, with his doctor's council decided to slowly go off his medication and see if he really needed it any longer. He was on much lower doses than he was used to and on top of that forgot to take his medicine at night. The result was a seizure in the early morning.

It was a tramatic experience for a newly wed wife. But we dealt with it.

So these pretty much non-existant seizures equal a pre-existing condition in the minds of the isurance gurus.

When we were first married we had health insurance. First through Home Depot and then through an engineering firm Chad worked for. Then, over a year ago, in January of 2009, Chad was "laid" off. He wasn't able to find another job for a month and when he did find a job it wasn't "full time" and thus had no medical insurance. I also was only working part time due to my school schedule.

So we made due.

We had to pay $150 every month for Chad's medicine, plus we had no health insurance. And we haven't had any since...certainly not for lack of trying.

Chad tried to find a job with health insurance and so have I, but we all know good jobs are few and far between. And good jobs WITH insurance are even harder to come by.

So we have lived without health insurance for over a year now.

When I realized we would have to get it personally, on our own, I looked into it, applied and we were...DENIED. Because of a pre-existing condition.

I've had many people ask me why I don't get it just for me. Well, good question. We can't afford it. We pay $150 dollard for Chad's medicine and if the health insurace we're paying for doesn't cover it, then we can't afford it.

So, it turns out, we couldn't get health insurance even if we wanted to.

So we have lived without it. It's hard and scary at times, but what can we do?

So let me again say that although I don't agree with the healthcare bill being passed, a voice in the back of my head says, is it such a bad thing that the insurance agencies will have to be a little more honest and offer health insurance to everyone?

What if we could get health insurance privately right now?

We would still pay for Chad's medicine if you think about it. We would just be paying it to the insurance company. But we would have peace of mind. We would feel safer.

So while none of this really matters right now because the bill won't change anything until 2014 and we will have insurance by then ( we will!), it still makes you think in the present.

I think the healthcare reform is a mistake. I think we need to be more self sufficient and take care of ourselves for a change, but that doesn't mean that we don't need help from the government sometimes.

So instead of making health insurance mandatory, why don't they reform the health insurance companies themselves? Make them more honest (right now!) with out forcing America to get something they either don't want, can't afford or just can't get.

Health insurance shouldn't be something forced upon us... but rather something easily accessible to those who need and want it.