U.S. Supreme Court justices are now in day 2 (March 27) of arguments in the landmark Affordable Health Care Act case, which mandates that by 2014, every American must have health insurance or pay a penalty. The constitutionality of the mandate is what’s being challenged: how can the government force you to buy a product?
The lawsuit was filed two years ago by the National Federal of Independent Businesses and 26 states – led by Florida – in an attempt to overturn the law. The core of the legal question is whether the U.S. Constitution’s interstate commerce clause allows the federal government to force people to purchase a product they don’t want. The government attorneys argue that since everyone will enter the health care market at some point, it makes sense for people to obtain insurance while they’re still healthy and costs can be controlled.
Two years ago, Mary Brown was one of the original plaintiffs in the lawsuit, didn’t have health insurance, and owned a small auto repair shop in Panama City, in the Florida Panhandle. Today, Brown’s auto repair shop is closed, she has declared bankruptcy and is unemployed, partly because of unpaid medical bills. According to the Palm Beach Post, of the $63,000 Brown owes, $4,500 of it is for unpaid bills for her husband’s medical care. More than half of it is owed to a medical center in Panama City and the rest is owed to doctors in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.
Jane Perkins, legal director of the National Health Law Program said, “Had she been eligible or had this law been in effect, she would have had access to affordable health insurance policies that would have covered these health care costs and in all likelihood avoided bankruptcy. It’s ironic that this plaintiff against the law is someone who makes the case for the rationality of what Congress did.”
Ironic? We have a better term for it. Dark trickster.
More than 62 percent of Americans who file for bankruptcy do so partly because of medical costs. Perkins notes that Brown and people like her are one reason health insurance and medical care are so expensive. When people don’t pay their medical bills, those costs are passed on to consumers.
But another factor of this dark trickster is that both sides of the arguments are specious. When President Obama signed the Affordable Health Care Act into law, with the mandate, he essentially handed the insurance companies nearly 50 million new customers – the number of people in this country who don’t have/can’t afford health insurance. You could hear the insurance companies’ collective cheers all the way to the moon. In return, insurance companies can’t deny coverage for pre-existing conditions and must remove all caps for coverage. Until profit is removed from health care – i.e., take insurance companies out of the picture and extend Medicare to all – then health care in the U.S. continues to be just another business run by corporate interests.
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We were going to post this tomorrow, but it appears the individual mandate is in trouble and if it’s overturned, then the entire law unravels. Robert Reich, labor secretary under President Clinton, believes that overturning the mandate could result in Medicare for all, IF the administration plays their cards right. You can follow this at Huffington Post.
You know, this may sound hopelessly idealistic, but I come from the 60’s generation (“All you need is Love…..”).
What if we really got it that we’re all in this together, on a small planet? That “he’s not heavy, he’s my brother”? That real profit is the health and creativity of everyone around us, not to mention future generations? That the real currency is the current of harmony flowing between people?
I know, hopeless……….
Rob and I are from the 60s, too. John Lennon, where are you??
In the UK we sometimes have moans and grumbles about our National Health Service (NHS) but the bottom line is that if we are ill, however major, it costs us nothing. There’s a lot to be said for all working and income producing people paying into such an organisation. No one should surely have to go bankrupt or have extra worries at the time of severe illness.
It costs nothing! Wow. I’m moving to the UK.
We have the same system in Australia and New Zealand,too.
OK then, we also have the option of moving to Australia or NZ!
These comments say it all. Either our society believes in caring for the poor and the sick or we think that they should go and find a place to die. I wonder if Mary Brown has now changed her attitude to universal health care coverage or if she is still stubbornly routing for her team?
She’s still applauding for her team. I don’t have the palm beach post article in front of me, but I think she said something along the lines of she still doesn’t believe insurance should be mandated.
Nice to see you, Jeri!
For many years, my hubby and I were denied medical insurance because I had a serious bout with cancer when I was almost forty, and because my husband is diabetic with coronary disease. So, we were denied by every company or, they would have created attachments adding such an enormous amount of money to the monthly premiums that paying the costs of medical care itself was less expensive. Now, however, we have Medicare and AARP Supplemental, (no prescription insurance, tho) and haven’t paid a single penny out of pocket for ANYTHING other than drugs….and hubby has had extremely major, complicated dual surgeries for kidney cancer and I’ve had heart surgery. Fortunately, we have no deductibles at all with our plan.
The only difficulty with this situation is that each month when our social security comes in, we pay our supplemental medical insurance premiums out of it, which takes a big bite out of our SS checks. It’s a mess. There has to be a way to fix these things so that staying alive and healthy doesn’t shove folks into the poverty levels. Nevertheless, I’m sooooooooo grateful that we now have the Medicare and supplemental. Without it, we would certainly have literally gone bankrupt when hubby had the cancer surgery. That hospital bill and related bills approached a million dollars. How can ordinary people pay such ridiculous amounts! As an RN, I decided to sit down with the mass paperwork from all the various departments, etc, and check the amounts for whatever. An emesis basis…yep, one of those plastic throwaway little thingies…..was billed at $35!!!!! A box of tissues? $12!!!!!!! And these were non-essentials sitting on his bedside table. The medications he was given were off the roof, especially anesthesia and insulin. It’s absurd.
Our primary physician is a family friend, and thank God for her…she gives him samples of almost all his meds. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to get one of his life-sustaining ones…insulin. A tiny vial of insulin is $110.00, and doesn’t last even a month. That is outrageous. Absolutely outrageous. And there are hundreds of thousands of diabetics who can’t buy it, therefore they DIE. I realize I’ve put a lot of personal info into this comment, but couldn’t make the case without the personal stuff. Our primary doc actually suggests to us that we get some of his ‘scripts from Canada because they are so less expensive, and she says they’re just exactly the very same meds!!
Emergency rooms are required by law to treat emergency situations, regardless of the patient’s ability to pay. Then, however, if there is no insurance and no guarantee of payment, the patient will be released and not admitted even if he or she desperately needs to be admitted. Once the emergency part of the situation is resolved, to the streets the patient goes. We had a friend who died of an aneurysm as a result of this, and he had lots of money…just no insurance! Terrible terrible terrible.
I suspect stories like this one are probably more common than we realize. It’s a travesty that we spend untold zillions on war but don’t have a decent universal health care system.
I had to declare bankruptcy in 2002 because of medical costs. I am fortunate that this past year I’ve been able to have a medical plan through the state for low income people, but you never know if you’re going to have it. I’m also fortunate that I live near the Mexico border – many go to Nogales to buy meds. An example: Advair, a med for asthmatics, costs $250.00 a month in the U.S. (without insurance). In Mexico it is $50.00 or so. Quite a profit margin…………and a medicine that few people can afford to pay out of pocket.
To me, the situation with medicine in the U.S. is like the situation with gun control……..crazy. Obviously nations like Canada or the U.K. haven’t fallen apart because their citizens have national health care.
Well said. It is nuts and what an excellent analogy.
” Until profit is removed from health care – i.e., take insurance companies out of the picture and extend Medicare to all – then health care in the U.S. continues to be just another business run by corporate interests”.
That’s your problem in a nutshell.
You have to get rid of these vampires (insurance companies).
An image keeps coming into my mind of the movie trailer
“Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34x6m-ahGIo
I saw it as an allegory of the people taking on the Banksters…but maybe you could throw in these blood/money sucking vampires,as well.
I can’t wait to see this movie,it looks like fun.
Especially if you think he is taking on the money suckers of the world.-)
Fingers crossed that this turns out well, although what “well” would look like, I don’t know. It was all bolloxed up when the public option was dropped (IMHO).
Well: for me, that translates into a public option.