Ray Erickson
I have been thinking about health care reform for over a month now, wondering how to write about it without offending anyone. But no matter what I write, I’m sure it will offend someone. For this I apologize in advance.
I also want to thank all my instructors at last year’s Voices Institute. Without them, I would not be writing this now. They convinced me that one voice can make a difference, and that speaking up about what I believe may help others use their own voices to make a difference.
Some of you reading this know me personally and know that I have had quite an extensive medical history over the last 11 years. I have been one of the fortunate ones, since I can afford health insurance through my employer. Without that insurance, my wife and I would probably be medically bankrupt several times over. But a lot of our coworkers are not so lucky.
About a third care of all direct care workers can’t afford insurance, due to high premium rates and low wages. (Those low wages are a whole other issue.) How many of us go to work sick because we cannot afford to miss a day due to illness? We can’t take proper care of you or your loved ones if we’re sick ourselves – or if we’ve let a chronic condition go untreated so long that it’s gotten too back to let us work. If you want to know more about this, PHI just published a new fact sheet (PDF) about it.
Right now, this great country is in great turmoil. The economy is down the tubes. The Medicare/Medicaid system is broken. The Social Security system is broken. The health care system is definitely broken. People are losing their jobs left and right, and with the loss of jobs comes the loss of health insurance. As Americans, we need to fix our health care system together.
I have no idea how to do that, but I do have some ideas you might want to think about:
- It is time for the insurance companies to step back and quit telling the doctors what tests or procedures can or cannot be done on their patients. They also need to let the patient decide who their doctor is going to be. Paying claim only if the doctor is “in-network” needs to stop.If insurance companies didn’t charge such high premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses, we wouldn’t have roughly one million direct care care workers — or 47 million Americans overall –without insurance. CEOs of insurance companies don’t need to be making multi-million salaries when we have people in this country with no insurance at all because they had to decide: “Do I feed my family or do I get health insurance for them?”I am NOT saying health insurance should be free. I don’t believe we should get something for nothing. My point is we need affordable health care for health care workers – and for all Americans.
- It is time for doctors to start stepping up to the plate for their patients. They should take a stand against the insurance companies. Who knows you better, the doctor treating you or the insurance company paying the claim?
- Most importantly, it is time for Americans to take control of our own medical care. We are the ones who are paying the high insurance premiums — NOT the insurance companies. NOT the doctors. We are. Let’s take back our health care and our health care system.
Ray Erickson
Certified Medication Aide
Very well stated Ray, I can’t imagine that anything you wrote would offend anyone.
However, with that said, perhaps we are not doing our mission justice if we have not offended a few people along the way!