Senator John McCain is trying to explain why buying your own health insurance is better than a national health-care plan, and he even suggests it’s a nice alternative to comprehensive company plans.
Well, I’ve got a close friend who has been through one terrible disease and now is dealing with another. And the only good thing she has to say about her ordeal is: "Thank God I have insurance." Because if she had bought her own or used a tax-deferred savings account—the dual prongs of McCain’s health-care policy—everyone who knows her would be hosting fund raisers to pay for her six figures’ worth of drugs and doctor’s visits.
The basic idea of the McCain plan is to give tax credits of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to choose their own insurance. As McCain’s website says, “Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider. Those obtaining innovative insurance that costs less than the credit can deposit the remainder in expanded Health Savings Accounts.”
The test of insurance is how good it is when you really, really need it. And it’s often lousy when it comes to plans working people can afford.
Example: The Wall Street Journal recently profiled one self-insured American, Lisa Kelly, of Lake Jackson, Texas, the sort of American who should give McCain goosebumps: She quit her job to care for her aging mother, lives on $35,000 a year, and she still bought her own insurance.
Unfortunately, that insurance didn’t turn out to be innovative enough for Kelly. The Journal described what happened when she tried to get treatment for acute leukemia.
Houston’s M.D. Anderson, a nonprofit with the odd distinction of being one of the country’s most profitable medical centers, learned that her insurance had payment limits and demanded payment up front—in the form of a certified check for every step of her care.
That meant shelling out $105,000 to admit her, $45,000 for a follow-up appointment, $60,000 for treatment after a bone-marrow transplant, and $314 for a penis catheter clamp.
On the bright side, because Mrs. Kelly does not have a penis, the hospital took the clamp off her bill.
Which brings me to my friend, an artist and a teacher. Eighteen months ago, this tee-totaling, nonsmoking 56-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer. She spent a year enduring chemotherapy and radiation.
Every day she took a drug we dubbed "The Prada Pills," because they cost $100 each and came packaged in sleek black and silver cases that reminded us of Prada handbags.
The cost of her treatment came to hundreds of thousands of dollars. If she had self-financed, her own insurance would not have been enough to cover it. Luckily, all but $2,000 was covered by her husband’s company’s comprehensive insurance plan.
This is the same kind of insurance McCain seems to believe Americans don’t want. On the contrary! Most of us twist ourselves into pretzels to earn and keep it.
But back to my friend. Her treatment so diminished her immune system that she fell prey to a nasty
virus that damaged her heart. Last week we learned she has heart failure and will likely be on costly medication and under a doctor’s care for the rest of her life. Once again, her husband’s company-sponsored insurance will cover the full cost of her treatment. If he loses his job, she may meet Lisa Kelly’s fate.
Partisan arguments aside, doesn’t it seem more and more likely that we’re going to decide that it’s unacceptable to allow the skyrocketing cost of medicine to crush the life out of the inadequately insured? I’m thinking that’s got to happen soon. Yet, on the question of urgency, McCain’s senior policy adviser Douglas Holtz-Eagan told The Wall Street Journal that the market would work the wrinkles out over time.
"Let the plan develop and solve problems when they arise," he said.
But time is something sick people don’t have.
Comments (9)
Amen to Amy O’Connners email regarding the self-insured. My husband is self-employed and I work part-time so we purchase our own health insurance. We seldom go to the dr. and have not had any of the preventive tests run ie: colonoscopy, mamamogram, pap smear, prostrate, etc. because if we added the costs of these tests which would not be covered under our plan and the monthly premium we pay, we would have to sell our home! I recently went to a dermatologist to have some skin cancers removed and it cost out of pocket $1,000. I choose not to have one spot surgically removed because of the cost and am trying to heal it with medicine which is also costly. Every year when our premium goes higher (this year approx. 12%)I consider cancelling our policy, but am afraid if we had a serious disease and had to be hospitalized we would loose everything we have worked for. We are not wealthy and half of what I make goes to pay the insurance premiums. Is there anyone else out there that can identify? I am 58 and my husband is 59. We do not plan on retiring anytime soon, maybe never!
The problem is not necessarily the people WITH health insurance….it the people WITHOUT health insurance that puts the burden on everyone. Why doesn’t McCain put this plan into action for those who DO not have any (including Medicaid/Medicare) insurance? Leave the people who have a job and have health insurance through their company alone.
We have a son who had open heart surgery in 2004 that went bad and left him paralysis from the waist down and it has been one thing after another for him since. Without our health plan insurance through my husband’s company we would not have been able to provide adequate care for our son.
I ask this question because I have pondered over it for the last few years with everything that has happened to our family……my parents taught me to be honest, not greedy, and respectful of myself and others. My question is does this matter to anyone anymore? My husband and I are very honest (that is why our son doesn’t qualify for SSI even though he is 19 years old), we are not greedy…..let us save that program for someone else less fortunate than us, and we respect ourselves (we actually go to work everyday and work hard….we DO NOT live off the system like many others and we respect others…..and offer prayer, help, and money when we can for those less fortunate.
I feel like the Americans who do support theirselves and their families the old fashioned, honest way by working……end up getting ate up by the government and society. Does anyone agree with me?
I don’t think Mr. McCain’s plan is the answer but neither do I think a national health plan as proposed by Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton is the answer. That will only encourage private employers to drop their coverage for employees and dump the responsibility onto the government(as was the case with the prescription drug plan). I absolutely agree with Robyn.
Our government will go bankrupt in short order if they must provide health care for every single citizen. Someone needs to come up with a plan that focuses on American citizens that WANT healthcare insurance but truly cannot afford it. The people that will not purchase insurance (but truly have the means to) and think they are owed healthcare insurance because they’re an American need to take a realistic look at some of the countries that have socialized medicine. It ain’t pretty. Everyone needs to do their fair share and not put it on the backs of the government or other people. While many people can’t, most people could afford to pay their fair share. The ones that can’t are the ones we should help.
I was laid off Monday and will lose my company insurance plan on May 31st. Before my full-time employment, I had private insurance for my family. One of the big differences between the two is that the company insurance is spelled out and I never had a claim questioned or denied. With the private insurance, they questioned everything and actually denied a claim that I knew my policy covered. I had to file a complaint with the state to force them to pay it. The private insurance companies set up lots of hoops to jump through hoping that people will just give up, which happens much of the time.
If Big Business wants to dump the cost of company insurance plans then they need to raise our pay to compensate for the loss. Then our govenment needs to regulate the ridiculous pricing in the medical industry. Fair market won’t drive prices down when you are dealing with medical procedures and medicines that people have to have. Then our government needs to force the medical industry to make their pricing, billing, and treatment protocol information transparent and user-friendly to the general population.
Finally, every govenment employee in the USA needs to lose their health benefits right along with the rest of us. The very people who are deciding that we, the American workers, can be left on our own to shoulder our medical costs have their medical coverage paid for by us, the American workers.
I was laid off Monday and will lose my company insurance plan on May 31st. Before my full-time employment, I had private insurance for my family. One of the big differences between the two is that the company insurance is spelled out and I never had a claim questioned or denied. With the private insurance, they questioned everything and actually denied a claim that I knew my policy covered. I had to file a complaint with the state to force them to pay it. The private insurance companies set up lots of hoops to jump through hoping that people will just give up, which happens much of the time.
If Big Business wants to dump the cost of company insurance plans then they need to raise our pay to compensate for the loss. Then our govenment needs to regulate the ridiculous pricing in the medical industry. Fair market won’t drive prices down when you are dealing with medical procedures and medicines that people have to have. Then our government needs to force the medical industry to make their pricing, billing, and treatment protocol information transparent and user-friendly to the general population.
Finally, every govenment employee in the USA needs to lose their health benefits right along with the rest of us. The very people who are deciding that we, the American workers, can be left on our own to shoulder our medical costs have their medical coverage paid for by us, the American workers.
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My company currently pays $14k per year for my family’s health insurance. Under McCain’s plan, my employer no longer has an incentive to offer health insurance because it won’t be tax deductible. McCain will give me $5k in tax credits to buy my insurance. That means I will have to come up with $9k every year to buy my health insurance. If McCain is in office for eight years, I will have to pay $72k for health health insurance. I will NOT be voting for John McCain becaue I don’t have $72k. His health insurance program will bankrupt me and my family. No thanks.
let it be a shared program, half job half government
Somebody explain to me how McCains health insurance plans would affect my company. My company is self insured. All the company does is mail a check to Blue Cross after it is billed by the doctor/hospital.
We have a yearly deductible, an admission deductible, and a standard 80/20 major medical coverage. We pay no premiums, and the company pays Blue Cross an administrative fee to adjudicate the payments according to the plan. So there is no “policy” premium cost as such for us. What part of my health insurance would become taxable?