The pre-existing list can go on and on and on. Have you ever had headaches? High blood pressure? Have you ever sought a doctor's help for anxiety? For stress? Have you ever visited a psychologist or a psychiatrist? You have a pre-existing condition that can be “activated” by the insurance company any time they please in order to deny you coverage.
Have you ever had a yeast infection? Hemorrhoids? Have you ever smoked? Do you have a few glasses of wine at night? All of these are pre-existing conditions or facts that insurance companies can declare are related to pre-existing conditions.
You. Everything about you. Your entire body (including your mind) is a pre-existing condition. You cannot escape. You are a human being.
You are the enemy of the insurance company. Your digestive system is one enemy. Your vascular system is another enemy. Your central nervous system is another enemy. Your reproductive system, your excretory system, your respiratory system, your endocrine system are all the enemy of your insurance company. They are a drain on insurance company profits. You are a drain on insurance company profits.
Your teeth and your eyes, both of which are two of them most important aspects of functioning as a human being actually require special insurance----dental insurance and vision insurance. Both of these types of insurance coverage are well known to have coverage that can only be described as pathetically inadequate.
Your mental health, manifested by the most important organ in your body requires “special mental health coverage” that again is woefully inadequate and often dictates that you can only see a psychologist but not a psychiatrist; or only a social services counselor and not a psychologist; and are allowed no more than ten visits per calendar year.
As we speak the insurance company is looking for more information on you. They want information on your hobbies, your job duties, what you eat, what you drink, if you smoke. They will keep track of your age, your marital status, the State in which you live. They will keep track of your divorce decree or whether you are legally separated. They will gather as much information on your family history as possible: what your mother died of, what your father died of, and a list of hundreds of medical conditions that you may have had from the time of your birth up until today.
Between 50 million and 70 million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever due to one or more of the life situations described above.
Tens of millions of Americans have policies that have policies that don’t cover the medical conditions they have, or won’t cover the medical conditions they will get in the future.
One million bankruptcies each and every year are due to Americans who can not pay their overwhelming medical bills. 750,000 of these people actually HAVE health insurance and are left with astronomical medical bills that are not covered.
22,000 Americans die every year due to our system of Corporate health insurance. Who are these people? They are people just like you and me. They are young people, middle aged people, and children. They are middle class Americans. They are people who may have deductibles of $500 or $1000 and don’t feel they can afford a doctor's visit. They may be people that have a pain in their chest but know that the insurance company refuse to cover the prescription medication that they need. They may be Americans that have just gotten divorced, or just lost their jobs, or who have uncovered pre-existing conditions and they decide to refrain from taking care of their health.
Millions of Americans have what is touted as catastrophic coverage. Their deductible may be $5000 or $10,000 or $15,000 a year. They pay a minimal amount for such coverage because the insurance companies know that they will never have to pay on any claims. This is the exact opposite type of logic one should use when taking responsible care of your health. High deductibles encourage individuals to NOT seek medical attention until a health condition has actually reached a catastrophic degree of seriousness.
America is at risk. We are at risk. Your family is at risk. YOU are at risk.
The one and only solution is H.R. 676; true, single payer, universal healthcare for all Americans as exists in France, the #1 healthcare system in the world.
We should not sugarcoat the nature of the Corporate run healthcare insurance system we have in America. It is a system designed and based upon deceit, deception, and fraud. It is a system Corporate con men and snake oil salesmen. Greed is what drives it. The lust for money keeps its wheels and gears well greased.
Especially complicit are Senators, Congressmen, Corporate CEO’s, corporate employers, the all powerful health insurance industry and pharmaceutical industry, and the elite law firms and special interest lobbyists that stalk the halls of Congress.
