Thursday, April 27, 2006

The Fat Get Fatter When It Comes To Health Care...

Blue Cross is under fire once again and it's about time...again.

A lawsuit filed in California recently against Blue Cross, claims that premium paying members are being dropped like bad meat from their health plans due to 'irregularities'in their original applications.

Not only are these members plans being canceled, they're being cancelled retroactively leaving many, who have had treatments costing upwards in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, in financial straights, often leading to their losing their homes along with their life savings.

So you have to ask yourself this? How safe is my health coverage?

Having personally been denied coverage through Blue Cross due to having taken two different prescription, Wellbutrin (an antidepressant also used to help smokers quit smoking) and Previcid (an antacid commonly prescribed by doctors for heartburn), neither of which are any type of heroic life saving medicines, I know the difficulties many of these people face.

Having never suffered from any major illness in my life I was flabbergasted when the denial letter showed up.

Who knew that too much spicey food could turn into such a fiasco? Had I known then what I know now I would have bought another bottle of tums and called it a day.

What it really boils down to is profit.

Blue Cross falls under the wing of WellPoint, Inc. who, in their latest financial report, boasted a 20% increase in their first quarter profits.

Well, even if you're a math dork, it's not hard to figure out that if you can pick and choose what health benefits you'll pay out and what you won't as far as independant healthcare coverage goes it's easy to report an increase in profit.

Duh!

Hopefully this will add fuel to Senator Sheila Kuehl's SB 840, a bill that would introduce a universal health plan for every resident in California.

One of the largest grassroots organizations Health Care For All is rallying folks to get involved and be a part of the solution rather than letting the big money making mongers get fatter.


The simple fact is, if you ever find yourself in the situation where you are without health care due to employment change or lay off and apply to a company such as Blue Cross, every doctors file will be scrutinized under a microscope. Every medicine, ache and pain, filled prescription may just become your own prescription for disaster.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Tell Us Something We Don't Already Know...

The current state of health care is in shambles! If you don't have health insurance you're pretty much in the hands of God.

And, God forbid anyone applying for health insurance has had any health history in the past few years. You're pretty much screwed if you have if you've seen a doctor and they wrote something in your file because anything will be used against you.

It's getting harder and harder to prove that you're going to live through anything harder than heartburn or any other minor symptom that crosses your path.

According to a news report by Reuters:

Many middle-income Americans lack insurance: study

Tue Apr 25, 10:20 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of Americans making between $20,000 and $40,000 a year went without insurance for at least part of the year last year, according to a study published on Tuesday.

The research by The Commonwealth Fund also found that 20 percent of working adults are paying off medical debt -- often $2,000 or more -- and 60 percent of uninsured adults with chronic illnesses such as heart disease skip pills to save money.

The Commonwealth Fund researchers called the 40 percent figure a "dramatic and rapid increase from 2001," when 28 percent of people in this moderate income bracket were uninsured.

The group, which does the survey every other year, also found that 67 percent of the 48 million going without insurance were in families where at least one person worked full-time.

"The jump in uninsured among those with modest incomes is alarming, particularly at a time when our economy has been improving," said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, who helped write the study.

"If we don't act soon to expand coverage to the uninsured, the health of the U.S. population, the productivity of our workforce, and our economy are at risk."

The Fund, a private research group focusing on health care issues, surveyed more than 4,000 people by telephone for the report.

It found that people without health insurance were more likely to go without recommended cancer, cholesterol and blood pressure screenings. For instance, 18 percent of adults aged 50 to 64 who lack insurance had a colon cancer screening in the past five years compared to 56 percent of insured adults.

"For an uninsured person who is unlucky enough to get sick, it is easy to see how quickly they can fall into a downward spiral of debt, forgone care, and poorer health," Sara Collins, Commonwealth Fund senior program officer, said in a statement.

The study found that 21 percent of the adults surveyed between August and January had unpaid medical bills.

More than a third said they either had medical bill problems in the past year or were paying off medical debt. Of these, more than 60 percent were insured.

Several reports on people who lack insurance in the United States have shown that they do not have to regular doctors and often rely on emergency care, which in turn drives up costs.

The Commonwealth survey found that 35 percent of uninsured adults with chronic conditions visited an emergency room in 2005, stayed in the hospital overnight, or both, compared to 16 percent of patients with a chronic condition who were steadily insured.

According to many reports such as this, many people are going without basic care but, one organization in California is on a path to change that.

One of the largest grassroots organizations,
health care for all is giving the government a run for their money.

For anyone who has lost their insurance, who is uninsured or is using benefits under Cobra payments, it might just be worthwhile to look into this group and help them rally the government to take a better look at who will succumb to the illness of no insurance.

The Naked Truth...

Owning a home often requires us to procure the services of professionals to repair, remodel and install certain amenities.

Many of us have witnessed what shall be referred to as 'the-butt-crack-syndrome', the subject of many jokes, but one carpenter as reported by CBS2/KCAL9's news website has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities for those of us debating who to hire for our household maintenance chores.

Maybe he'll suffer for his antics or maybe "Desperate Housewives" will come a calling. That would sure add a new plot line to their show!


CBS2/KCAL9's news website article:

(AP) OAKLAND, Calif. A carpenter who keeps his clothes clean by working in the nude was arrested after a client returned home early and found him building bookcases in the buff.

Percy Honniball, 50, was charged with misdemeanor indecent exposure this week for the October incident.

He told officers he stripped before crawling under the client's house to do electrical work because he didn't want to soil his clothes, police said.

Honniball said Thursday that working in the nude gave him a better range of motion and that a skilled craftsman can work clothing — and injury — free.

"In certain situations such as demolitions where you are smashing rock you want to be clothed and protected because this rock can harm you," he said.

Honniball was caught working naked in Berkeley three times in the last six years and put on probation for violating a city ordinance. Honniball said he doesn't plan to do work in his birthday suit again.

Police said he apologized to the startled homeowner, but was fired. The homeowner paid Honniball for the finished work, but deducted $200.

"He kept out that amount to change his locks," Oakland Police Officer Jesse Grant said.