Question by Old Bluegrass Picker: Please tell me if I correctly understand the Republican philosophy concerning “for profit” health care?
Please consider this real life situation and explain not only the ideological but the moral aspects of your defense of our current health system.
Please note that this question has nothing to do with people getting “free” or “government” health care at your expense but with the structure of the “free market” health care system and it’s implications for ordinary Americans.
My father owned a small printing company in Alabama, employing about 25 people and most of the equipment was paid for as well as the building.This has been a family business, the American dream, since 1923.
My father’s health began to fail a while back and his doctor advised that he retire from the business which he did. My brother agreed to move to Alabama and run the company.
My brother had an individual Blue Cross policy in the state of Georgia where he was living before the move to run Dad’s company. My brother had had cancer some time back but was in remission and felt good about his health and the move.
But, of course, as soon as he changed his address from a Georgia address to the Alabama address, Blue Cross cancelled him.
No problem. He just called Blue Cross in Alabama to purchase coverage but was told that Blue Cross is incorporated in such a way that their policies are not transferable across state lines.
They gave him the choice of purchasing another policy or adding him to the group at the printing company but either way, they were calling the cancer a pre-existing condtion and imposed a one year waiting period.
Unfortuately, Dad had transferred his stock in the printing company to my brother in case dad passed away and this would avoid probate and other legal problems. We thought,
But then the real trouble started. Before the one year waiting period that Blue Cross imposed, my brother’s cancer returned with a vengence, hospitalizing him and requiring extensive and expensive treatment. The doctor and hospital bills soon ran into multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars, overwhelming his ability to pay.
His medications alone were costing over $ 3,000.00 per month.
Dad pleaded with me to come back and run the company since neither he or my brother could. I did but it was too late.
Since Dad had transferred his majority stock to brother, the doctors and hospital sued and obtained judgements against my brother, seizing the company stock and laying claim to the printing presses, the building and the company’s operating capital.
I watched in horror as my family’s business which was founded in 1923 was auctioned off for pennies on the dollar to partially satisfy a debt to some doctor’s and a hospital.
Had the law suits that destroyed the business been due to negligence on the company’s part such as an uninsured delivery van, then we would have deserved this.
But this was a case where we tried to purchase insurance for my brother and could not do so due to an insurance company’s clever lawyers preventing us from transferring coverage. And then the doctors, hoospitals and drug companies charging so much they almost no one could pay.
This is but one serious issue with our health care system that plagues those of us who try to live the American dream of an “ownership” society, pay our own way and create jobs for others and to benefit our community.
I would appreciate if some of you “conservatives” can explain to me how and why we should allow our health care system to continue to operate in such an insane and immoral manner and destroy the lives and fortunes of people who have tried to do nothing more than to play by the rules and to contribute to our community.
PS My family moved to this country from Europe in the early 1900′s to persue the American dream and find freedom from social and economic injustice.
Best answer:
Answer by Love Canada.
Sorry to hear of your case
In Canada we read these stories with shock. How can a modern country live like that. There is a better way
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