(no subject)

[rm]

Getting diagnosed with celiac disease causes girl's health insurance to be cancelled:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-thu-problem-briana-rice-sep17,0,771811.column

via dsmoen

Comments

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

I'm always a bit confused by the way Health Insurance is handled in the States.

I'd say the that company was blatantly discriminatory and hypocritical, but that's the way the health insurance companies roll as far as I'm aware.

Dude.

[bare-bear.livejournal.com]

I'm always a bit confused by the way Health Insurance is handled in the States.

That makes two of us. I'm very thankful of our Health Care system here in Canada. It's flawed, I know, but I also know that without it, my Dad would've died about 14 years earlier than he did, when he first got sick when I was 10. And I probably never would've identified and then gotten my own bout with cancer treated. I really feel for the Americans. I don't know how they can manage it if they're not rich.

[frodo-esque.livejournal.com]

I've lived in the US all my life and I'm confused by it.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

Of course, the company didn't get those records before offering the insurance because then they had an easy out if she got sick. There's no way I'd be alive if I was an American.

I just want to wake up tomorrow morning and find that the US has the same kind of universal healthcare as Australia. Or Canada. Or the UK. Or Germany. Or anywhere, really. I feel so terrible for all of you.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I just want to wake up tomorrow morning and find that the US has the same kind of universal healthcare as Australia.

SO DO I, I type from Maryland.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Ditto, from California. *headdesk*

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

That makes me feel like overturning a table. "Livid" doesn't begin to cover it. And we're supposed to believe that if we let them regulate themselves this will stop. One would think that with all the scrutiny they would stop this bullshit.

[kel-reiley.livejournal.com]

oh, that's just... typical

[misch.livejournal.com]

Here's another one

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Would anyone like to explain to me why refusing people medical care for critical and life=threatening conditions on cost grounds isn't a "death panel"?

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

We have always been at war with Eastasia....

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Looool. A+

And exactly. I was saying to someone "What I don't get is how anyone in the GOP can perpetrate such blatant lies after thining even a - oh right, to get elected." Cynical? Nope. Just a sad truth.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

It's only a death panel if you're not rich enough to shop for another job with better coverage. If you aren't, there must be something morally wrong with you, because God favors the rich and powerful. It must be true, the rich and powerful keep telling me so.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Are the rich actually fit for human consumption? Does anyone know? Is there any research?

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

That is just despicable. Everyone who thinks this country doesn't need healthcare reform should read this article. Thanks for the link - I plan to share it.

[malle-babbe.livejournal.com]

Remember kids, it isn't a "Death Panel" if the free market does it!

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

Doesn't this equate to "you've just had a collision; as a result, your car insurance is cancelled?"

Or "now that your house is on fire, your homeowners' fire insurance is cancelled"?

[demotu.livejournal.com]

That's what I don't get. What is health insurance FOR, if not when you get sick? Was there some sort of loophole in that one that said "this only covers accidents, not chronic illnesses?"

[rm.livejournal.com]

You know, back in the emergence of AIDS, anyone who was an activist learned something fast -- never, ever let a doctor put a diagnosis on your paperwork if you can help it, because this shit has been going on for decades.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Right. Which is why it's far better to put the power of health care in the hands of people you elect*, cause then you can boot them on their asses if they pull shit like this.

*That is, if it even went as far as anyone but a doctor deciding what's medically necessary, which except in the case of thin lines between elective and necessary and orphan drugs, it doesn't. The gov't has better things to do (well, maybe) than tell doctors how to do their jobs.

[sethg]

Well, you know, if insurance companies have to provide all this expensive health care to people who are sick, then they'll just have to raise the premiums for all the people who never see the inside of a hospital until they turn 65.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Not so far off from the truth. Actually, in swallowing the expenses of the uninsured who get treated at ER's, etc., premiums go up for everyone. It would be far cheaper to insure EVERYONE but do they do this? NOOOOOOOOOO....

[sethg]

The insurance companies would be thrilled to have a law requiring everyone to buy insurance from them, as long as they can preserve as much of their existing business model as possible. This is basically the situation now in Massachusetts (which is why our mandatory-health-insurance law got signed by a Republican governor), and it's the gist of the reform proposed by (Blue Dog Democratic) Senator Baucus.

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

Yes, and that's why it's imperative that it's a) imperative to have a public option that everyone can afford and b) to avoid mandates. I've followed Massachusetts' little experiment.

California has flirted with a state wide single payer which of course was torpedoed by the particularly nastily ideological brand of Republicans we have here. If we could only torpedo Ahnold and the Rethugs from this state...*sigh*...

[browneyedgirl65.livejournal.com]

and...really imperative to proofread before I post, *rolls eyes at self*

[girlingoldboots.livejournal.com]

And the benefit of having health insurance is what again? I think I'm going to print this up and hang it on the fridge for the folks to see.

[virginhuntress.livejournal.com]

There aren't words for how angry this makes me.