A little thing about health insurance debates….

I was just reading some Internet comments and somebody wrote, Health care was already universally available before the Universal Health Care Act.

I also recently read that some Republicans want retirees to get stipends instead of Medicare.

Um….After hubby lost a decent-paying job and health insurance during the Great Recession, he had to take a string of contract jobs and then a low-paying job which only gave an insurance stipend.  Group insurance rates through employers are fairly standard; individual insurance plans required higher rates for our health issues.

So we could not afford health insurance at all.

For several years, NO INSURANCE because it wasn’t offered/we could not afford it.  Ridiculous rates for our health issues made it impossible even to buy it with a stipend.  At least, not if we still wanted to EAT and pay our mortgage/bills/condo association fees.  (We moved there before hubby lost his job, and selling a condo/moving was not an option.  Ever try to sell a condo–not easy–and have two mortgages or mortgage+rent until it sells?)

I’ve also worked for an insurance agent, and seen what kind of premiums come in for retirees.  As far back as 2000, I wondered how the heck retirees could afford those premiums, and how the people deciding those rates could live with themselves.  (Not the raters, because they’re just clerks doing what Corporate told them to.  I had that job once, too.)

And when you can’t get insurance–Ever try to get health care without insurance?  Hubby had high blood pressure yet struggled just to find a doctor after his own doctor switched practices.  He’d get the runaround whenever he tried to find one.

When he finally found a good job and we had insurance again, all of a sudden, it was easy to find doctors.

We began discovering problems which required surgery.  There’s no way we could afford that without insurance!

I just hear so much BS coming from the Republicans about this, and then they talk about repealing “Obamacare.”  I say, amend the problems in Obamacare (or go to a single-payer system), but don’t get rid of the whole thing!  Then we’re back to where we were before!

And, oh yeah, Obamacare was actually based on REPUBLICAN ideas until Obama went along with it as a compromise.  Then, all of a sudden, it became Evil.  So Republicans are basically saying their OWN PLAN is Evil and must be repealed…

My head hurts.  😛