Re: We really need this


Sylv wrote:

> I don't know, Rose, but I hope that people smarter than I am can come
> up with a workable plan. My sister, in her mid-30s, is paying high
> premiums and co-pays on her employment-based policy. She says her
> costs and her employer's costs go up every year, and her benefits are
> less every year. And I know all too well what happens to that
> insurance when you leave the job.

hi Sylvia,

when Tam got home from work last night, she told me they were cutting
out medical coverage altogether, for ALL employees who were not salary
(other than the scientists themselves, the majority of employees are
hourly workers). and she works IN the medical field! i know Dennis's
coverage has been following the pattern; fewer things covered, higher
co-pays and deductibles. and he's a stunningly healthy 36-year-old.

> But, if the country is just too big, what about insurance from state to
> state? You'd have to put something in there to make it portable, so
> people won't get into trouble if they move to another state. Or, maybe
> from region to region? A large city like Los Angeles could function
> like a state on this level, and the more sparsely populated states,
> like Montana, could go in with other like states.

well, the original article mentioned insuring everyone under 25, as
younger folks without pre-existing medical conditions tend to be
low-risk insurees. that reminded me of the SCHIP program -- State
Children's Health Insurance Program. it covers all children up to the
age of 18, or through age 21 if they're in college. Tam was covered by
her biological father's policy thru age 18, and used SCHIP while she
was in college, from ages 18 - 21. there are income limitations, but
it's a separate program from Medicaid, covering a lot more preventative
and 'well child' checkups than Medicaid would.

thing is, different states implement the SCHIP differently, so that if
you moved, you'd have to learn new rules and regs, and most likely make
some changes from the way things were before.

when i first moved to California, the state was still financially
flush, and Medicaid was available to all uninsured CA citizens whose
income fell below the state limit. the state's shakier financial
position meant Medicaid cuts, so that now the program is only open to
low-income disabled people, pregnant/nursing women, and kids, who later
got diverted to SCHIP.

i know Medicare reform has also impacted Medicaid; not sure about the
SCHIP. i thought the latter was a great idea -- help healthy kids stay
that way throughout their parents' financial ups and downs.

> Now I'm wondering; what does a country like Japan do? Do they have a
> national health care plan? I'm going to look into this. . .

Sylvia, yes Japan does have national health care, BUT, they went
through a Reform of their own in 2000, so if you research Japan
specifically, the info from before '00 is out of date. their national
health care was originally funded by workers, just like the U.S., and
in 2000, they brought up some of the identical problems i hear about in
the U.S. -- the ageing population and declining young, healthy
workforce meant they were going broke. they've got some different kind
of system in place now, with the same kinds of big deductible/large
co-pay problems we see here. (one of my nephews lives in Nagasaki.)

> And, you are right about the "layers of bureaucracy" in government run
> programs. Me, I'm afraid of the corruption that is sure to ensue.
> Hell, the former governor of Illinois is on trial for corruption right
> now. . .and he is not the first Illinois governor to go on trial. I
> think one or two of them even landed in the slammer a while back. .

the City of San Diego is many things: a military town, a tourist town,
a border town. it's also been Corruption Central for a long, long time!
the big national news is Randy "Duke" Cunningham's bribery plea
bargain, but i think he's actually one of the *lesser* offenders in
town. the NY Times called San Diego "Enron-by-the-Sea" -- !!! we've
had a long line of Mayors who were either corrupt, or 'merely'
incompetent. our recent Mayoral race had all the excitement of Bush v.
Gore, with Donna Frye having won the popular vote as a write-in
candidate, but some who voted for her didn't fill in the bubble next to
"Write In," but simply wrote her name in the space provided. (we're
voting with Scan-trons in this county -- those things we filled out in
school, 'fill in the bubble.')

see, all the "write in" votes have to be tallied manually; the machine
only reads the bubbles, so i guess a lot of folks figured since they're
hand-counting anyway, writing the name was good enough, but the courts
disagreed, and corrupt *** Murphy was declared Mayor. then he resigned
about 6 weeks later, so there was an expensive special election.

the "Pension Scandal" is big news. oh, i almost forgot "Stripper-gate,"
LOL! City Council members taking bribes to relax the lap dancing regs
at all-nudie strip clubs. when Murphy resigned, the Deputy mayor and
the next guy in line were both under Indictment, so we had an interim
Mayor who did nothing, till the Sanders vs. Frye special election,
which Sanders won. Pete Wilson was S.D.'s mayor when i moved here, and
he was merely incompetent. everyone since has been pretty well corrupt,
Republicans and Democrats alike. the City is so big that of course it
has a HUGE impact on the County, but i can't vote for or against anyone
for Mayor, being outside city limits.

we joke about it here too, a LOT, because for us county-not-city folks,
there really ISN'T anything we can do (other than moving back to the
ghetto to be eligible to vote -- nah, don't think so!).

S.D.'s credit rating is in the toilet, because of the ADMITTEDLY
illegal "pension scam" and deliberate under-funding. some folks chose
to target S.D.'s CITY ATTORNEY, bitching that if he'd just kept his
mouth shut, the city would still be in the pink (a well as the RED!).
the City Council went to court and got a RESTRAINING ORDER against him
at one time.

ahh, San Diego, you're my home! =:o

rose

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