healthcare

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There are a few things that can really me going and one of them is health care.  The other is education but I am going to stick to health care today. 

Everyone should be covered.  That is pretty much where it stands for me.  Totally black and white.  Why?  Because shit happens and if something ends up happening to you and you aren't covered, you will find yourself in serious financial trouble. 

This past week, the super in our building slipped on ice and broke his leg and fractured his ankle.  Although I really wanted our building to provide health care for all the employees, it wasn't in the budget.  Our building is relatively new and we have yet to even have a meeting of the minds to discuss adding something like health care to the annual costs.  It would increase all of our annual maintenance but personally I could care less because people who are working with us every day should be covered…bottom line.

Our super will be out for a month, needs surgery and also has two young twins at home.  I can't even imagine how he is going to pay the bills that are going to start pouring in.  The stress, the anxiety he must feel and he needs his health as we all do. We have reached out to him so we can help him financially.  I feel absolutely terrible about what has happened.

The latest headline in the past week was how the Republicans want to repeal the Health care bill.  Granted there is no way that we are all going to be happy with the actual bill but at the end of the day, shouldn't we all be covered?  Putting money into a reserve fund for the god forbid accident or unforeseen health problems.  If we don't have health care for all there are other financial costs that are hidden.  People go into bankruptcy because they can't afford their medical bills, people don't have annual check-ups which are the key to proactive care, etc. 

I could go on and on but after seeing what happened this past week to someone we see everyday drives the need for health care straight home.  I am lucky that I don't need to worry about paying for our medical costs and we all get annual check-ups but for those who have that worry hanging over their head every day because they aren't insured makes me very angry.   

 

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Comments (Archived):

  1. dave

    Totally agree. I am going to write a post myself saying that health care is personal, it’s economic for sure, but I really resent that people try to make it political. It’s not political, it’s a necessity like air and water, fire protection and police.

    1. Gotham Gal

      i like that. it is a necessity like air, water, fire protection andpolice.

  2. Jim B

    Kudos to you for stepping in to help out your super. I grew up in England with socialized healthcare which worked well. There was a default system where you could readily get healthcare for day tto day problems and if you wanted to speed things up you could still pay for private services. It honestly did not seem like a corrupted system since doctors had no insurance companies to racketeer payments from.I think there is real polarization in the US where the poor are well covered with medicaid and the wealthy end up paying market rates for premium services. The middle class is really caught in the middle and really gets a poor deal. I recently slipped badly on ice and after a couple of doctors visits needed an MRI which cost me $1000 out of pocket, despite having company healthcare coverage. That is a big chunk of change to me and I held off getting treatment for a few weeks to ease the hit on my cashflow.We have to create a society where more people take personal responsibility for health and wellness. Without drifting off topic its nuts that there are so many obese people rolling around the streets in battery powered wheelchairs. However, there really has to be a better system for accident/injury resolution or people getting caught out with life threatening illnesses.We need proper “disaster” health insurance and need to put more responsibility on individuals to manage personal health and wellness.Thanks for getting the issue out there.- Jim

    1. Gotham Gal

      personal health and wellness is so key vs not going to a doctor for 10 yearsand discovering that you have something.the middle class are constantly getting screwed and they should all rise upand beg for health care.

  3. Tracey Jackson

    You are so right. And then when people do have insurance so much isn’t covered and they are put through more painful procedures because the insurance companies will pay for those. It all sucks. No one should have to go through what your super is and bravo for you and Fred for helping out. But sadly there are more supers than there are Wilsons and that is why the country is a mess. And don’t get me started on what we pay for medicine here for NO REASON AT ALL.I buy my meds overseas whenever I can. The same asthma inhaler that costs 60 dollars here is 2 dollars in most other parts of the world. But then most can’t afford to travel to save money on meds, so its a crazy argument I’m putting up. But my point is, our medicine should cost that too. People should not have to make the choice between medication they need and food and many are faced with that choice.

    1. Gotham Gal

      you are absolutely right. people make decisions to take meds over food. itis absolutely crazy that anyone would put in a position like that?

    2. Bonny

      Be careful Tracey to confirm the manufacturer of the asthma inhalers. There is quite a little business on generic manufacturing that is not compliant with US regulations. Sometimes even shifting the excipients (inactive components) of a drug can significantly effect efficacy and safety.

  4. Bonny

    I think the most powerful step from our President should be to ask everyone in congress that is voting to repeal the healthcare legislation to drop out of their current government plan and to engage in the open market like the little puritan capitalists that they are. I am with you all the way Joanne. The ONLY way is to move away from employer sponsored healthcare and stop treating healthcare like it is a tradable commodity to generate maximum profit…it is shameful.

    1. Gotham Gal

      certainly profit is needed but what is going on is shameful.

  5. Amy

    I saw this blog post from Disruptive WOmen in Health Care and thought it was relevant to this discussion. We need to continue to evolve and providing health care to all is part of the process.http://www.disruptivewomen.net/201

    1. Gotham Gal

      this is great amy. thanks for sharing.

  6. Nmburr

    So you didn’t provide benefits for your employee, didn’t pay him enough so he could purchase health insurance for him and his family and under the new law he will be fined for not having health insurance. So who is paying him now for his lost wages?

    1. Gotham Gal

      i asked him to let me know everything. people in nyc live hand to mouth.

  7. Meghan

    Totally agree. I wasn’t aware that residential buildings provided healthcare for employees, but I think it’s great. I hope your super has a speedy recovery.

    1. Gotham Gal

      me too.

  8. Mike Hart

    This is such a complicated issue, but like so many BIG issues it is often better to start small than what was done. To some extent it’s all about choices, do we cover our kids to 26 or do we make sure a family working man like the super can get back to work as quickly as possible without going bankrupt. Some place some one is making that decision. In trying to serve all masters you end up serving no one.

    1. Gotham Gal

      I am not so sure there should be any choices. Everyone should be covered.The question of choice is do I want to continue my kids on our policy and ifnot where they work should take them on or there should be options for themto choose from but they must be covered.

  9. ellen

    I certainly believe in health care for all, but we can’t short change our seniors by cutting medicare. Changing the system to capitation is not the answer. We can say everyone will be covered but no one will really get adequate care. You will be able to see a primary doctor but he won’t prescribe life saving tests or x rays or specialist appointments, because it will come out of the doctor’s annual prepayment for all your health needs and he will not want to part with his chunk of money. The doctor will also be penalized by the insurance companies if they do order or make too many hospital inpatient recommendations. It is already happening with the alternate payment that Berwick is proposing. The Massachusetts health plan is a joke. The connectors don’t adequately cover anyone and a good individual policy is $1500 a month feom Blue Cross of Massachusetts . Now who do you think is enjoying this money? Not the patients.

    1. Gotham Gal

      It is an atrocity that states are cutting back anything and particularly forseniors. I’m sick of politics. Look at what happened in Nassau countrytoday. Can’t someone figure out how to manage the budgets appropriatelywhile by getting rid of fat in the government offices, raising taxes forall, having companies pay their fair share of the taxes and making sureeveryone is fully covered in health care.Nobody it seems can say the buck stops here

  10. ellen

    what happened in Nassau County?

    1. Gotham Gal

      Taken over by the state. One of the richest counties in New York and theycouldn’t make the tough decisions like to raise taxes and cut expenditures.Pathetic

  11. scottythebody

    Here in Vienna, if you have a super, you *must* pay the health insurance. Even if you rent, it’s rolled up into your “running costs”, which are the common fees for the building such as sewer, water, trash, elevator, etc. Seems sane to me.of course Austria has nationalized health care, so even if *we* weren’t paying it, the government would be.

    1. Gotham Gal

      it is sane.

  12. Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

    JoanneYou super should have access to affordable healthcare coverage. President Obama’s healthcare reform plan has the right ideas namely universal coverage at an affordable price with access to high quality care.How to get there is complicated.However his strategy is completely wrong. It will not get us there. It will increase the federal deficit with non valued added complexity and create greater dysfunction..My gut reaction is the same as yours. It is terrible for your super not have healthcare insurance and to be subject to the subsequent liability. The disasters occur to many people including most in the same financial position of your super.If you would like to know how to repair the healthcare system so it works for all, you should study my blog.Repairing the Healthcare System or http://stan.feld.com I became a student of the problems in our healthcare system in 1995 when I was President of a national medical organization. (American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists)To get started look at the blogs under the Summary Blog category. I would start with my six letters to President Obama. Unfortunately he his not paid attentions to one suggestion. I believe his plan will fail miserablely.The Republician have not listened to physicians either and they are coming up with nothing of significance.I believe medical care delivery in America can be repaired in one year if will had a consumer driven healthcare system rather than the dysfunctional system we have. It will become more expensive and even more dysfunctional under President Obama’s healthcare reform act.Say helllo to Fred and the kids for Cecelia and meYou have a great blog site. Keep going.Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

    1. Gotham Gal

      thanks Stanley and btw, we are getting insurance for everyone in thebuilding as of 3/1.