As I sit in the comfort of my home, watching the debates tonight one thing kept sticking out in my mind and that is the fight between the two healthcare plans between Obama and McCain. Truth is I don’t like to bring political discussions into porn.
This blog is for the most part to discuss adult related topics but tonight I’m going to make an exception because tonight I am annoyed to no end.
As I watched Obama talk about every American getting access to the same health insurance plan as Senators get, which will never fucking happen – sure a hacked version but not the real version they have right now – or McCain talk about his $5,000 healthcare tax credit, I think for the first time I realized how little both of these people know about these people they wish to represent – the American people and what the real struggles are of the middle class.
There was a friend of mine whose husband recently lost his job because his company had to make cutbacks. This means they not only lost their income, but also lost their healthcare coverage.
She went looking to buy healthcare on their own only to find that wasn’t an option. She tried to find reasonable rates using our good friend Google and came across an ad for low cost health insurance through I think she said eHealthinsurance.com in addition to checking rates through a company advertising on TV called Assurant Health. What she found was shocking.
A young married couple (both under 40), in reasonably good health with no children could pay around $500 to $1,000 a month for a policy, however this policy comes with a whopping $5,000 to $10,000 yearly deductible.
The $500 a month plan which had a $10,000 a yaer deductible wasn’t an option for them simply because it didn’t cover things like normal doctor’s visits. The $1,000 a month plan had a $5,000 a year deductible but they had little or no prescription coverage and per doctor visit co-payments of $50 a visit. I have no insurance at all and I only pay $50 to visit the doctor. They are looking at having to pay some $17,000 a year plus the cost of co-payments and prescriptions.
Previously for better coverage than what they would have under this new plan, with her husband’s employer they paid $250 a month, no yearly deductable, per doctor co-payments of $25 and prescriptions cost $10, $20 or $30 (depending on what they were).
So to go from $3,000 a year to $17,000 a year for significantly less coverage is quite a shock to their budget to say the least.
So what do our presidential candidates offer in return?
A $5,000 tax credit still makes their $17,000 a year insurance $12,000 a year not including the cost of co-payments and prescriptions.
Apparently McCain hasn’t looked into the actual cost of trying to get health insurance for those middle class folks who don’t quality for work funded plans or low income credits.
So what about Obama? Well his plans calls for a heatlcare plan equal to what he gets as a Senator at an affordable rate. And those who don’t chose to get healthcare may face a “fine”.
If this is what healthcare costs now. Where exactly does he plan on getting an affordable plan for all?
If heathcare cost even just $15,000 a year, how can people afford that?
For a truly affordable plan for “all”, he is going to have to do something at or around $100 to $200 a month and no way in hell can he pull that off.