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Are you living without health insurance?
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- Posted June 28, 2012 by
- Mahariffic Follow
Location
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Assignment
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Health Care Relief, Maybe
- Anika3, CNN iReport producer
The Supreme Court upholding the health care law comes as little surprise to me. Frankly, it would be a matter of economics to have such a system, if that system is developed and run efficiently. Whether the federal government can do that in light of persistent widespread abuses remains to be seen.
I am such a person who has not been able to afford health insurance. When I had the means, I was forced to purchase the federal plan for pre-existing conditions. Suddenly, every sniffle I may have had in the past amounted to a pre-existing condition by private insurers that would not accept me as a client. The federal plan, called PCIP, worked fairly well, except it was expensive for me, an unemployed individual relying on my exhausting resources.
When I could no longer afford to continue the PCIP, I received an invoice from PCIP from a claim submitted by one of my providers. It still makes no sense to me. In addition, when I lived in the Myrtle Beach, SC, area last year and had no insurance, it was literally impossible for me to get a doctor. I do not see how this new federal law would address this problem.
The courts threw a bone to the states that were griping about opting into the federal plan. Perhaps the burden to cover citizens in one state would vary from what conditions are more prevalent in another state. I do not know, but what I do know that my home state of South Carolina, which was one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, had created its own state plan that simply was cost-prohibitive for me and most people in this state.
Whether health insurance premiums should be taxed as an employee benefit would depend upon whether the amount that we pay is offset by a tax deduction. In that regard, I would support having employee insurance taxed as income, which I believe would ease the burden on employers.
Congress would serve the citizens best if it did not repeal what I believe has been a critical need for this country and the health care system. Surely, if we must carry car and property insurance to protect others and our things, then we should carry insurance for our health. One way or the other, everyone pays. I just hope that my using a grocery card scanner doesn’t come back to haunt me every time I bought chocolate or a bottle of wine.
I am such a person who has not been able to afford health insurance. When I had the means, I was forced to purchase the federal plan for pre-existing conditions. Suddenly, every sniffle I may have had in the past amounted to a pre-existing condition by private insurers that would not accept me as a client. The federal plan, called PCIP, worked fairly well, except it was expensive for me, an unemployed individual relying on my exhausting resources.
When I could no longer afford to continue the PCIP, I received an invoice from PCIP from a claim submitted by one of my providers. It still makes no sense to me. In addition, when I lived in the Myrtle Beach, SC, area last year and had no insurance, it was literally impossible for me to get a doctor. I do not see how this new federal law would address this problem.
The courts threw a bone to the states that were griping about opting into the federal plan. Perhaps the burden to cover citizens in one state would vary from what conditions are more prevalent in another state. I do not know, but what I do know that my home state of South Carolina, which was one of the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case, had created its own state plan that simply was cost-prohibitive for me and most people in this state.
Whether health insurance premiums should be taxed as an employee benefit would depend upon whether the amount that we pay is offset by a tax deduction. In that regard, I would support having employee insurance taxed as income, which I believe would ease the burden on employers.
Congress would serve the citizens best if it did not repeal what I believe has been a critical need for this country and the health care system. Surely, if we must carry car and property insurance to protect others and our things, then we should carry insurance for our health. One way or the other, everyone pays. I just hope that my using a grocery card scanner doesn’t come back to haunt me every time I bought chocolate or a bottle of wine.
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- health_care
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