Affordable Health Insurance

A good friend of mine is recovering from a much needed but complex surgical procedure. While she is facing a bit of time recovering, the surgery has resolved a situation that was causing her considerable pain. My friend is also fortunate in that she has health insurance. For many of us here in the United States having health insurance is a luxury we can’t afford.

I’m one of those people who does not have health insurance. It has been about seven years since I’ve had any - either the company I’ve worked for in the past didn’t offer it or, primarily, because I’m self-employed I can’t afford it. Oh sure, I’ve responded to who knows how many ads for “Affordable Health Insurance” only to find that my home mortgage is less than what they want for useful health insurance. I said useful insurance because you can get a little bit of nothing, and mostly useless insurance, for $100 to $200 per month, but the type of coverage I had years ago working for a corporation generally starts at $500 or more a month.

I’ve also got a friend who moved to Scotland several years ago to attend college. His wife and children moved with him while he works on his degrees. Recently he found out that his oldest son has autism. This is what he said in a recent e-mail to me: “He's [my friend’s son] been getting tons of help thanks to the blessing of universal health care (why this isn't a political no-brainer back home I'll never understand).”

I’ve got to admit the lack of some type of universal health care system is something I’ve been wondering about. My guess is that the pharmaceutical and insurance corporations are keeping their politicians well fed and away from that topic. Besides, as long as members of Congress have lifetime insurance benefits why should they care about people like me?

The United States probably can’t do what most European countries have done, but there has to be a way to make health insurance affordable to the average American. Big corporations get discounts because of the number of employees they have. How about a program that is nation-wide for all of the people like me? Lump us all together and give us a group discount!

Personally, I’d rather have insurance than worry about loosing everything I have to illness.