Moms & Politics

Hi everyone --

I think the video portrays the first lady as a caring and compassionate Mom. Did she convince me that I should favor the current health care reform bill(s)? No. With all due respect, her plea sounds like beauty contestant saying they want world peace. Its a nice dream.

The reality is that there are more than 300,000,000 people in the United States. 15% are uninsured. That is a problem that needs to be fixed! But, the government is not the one I want to do it. They have not convinced me that taking care of the 15% will not significantly reduce the level of care for everyone.

I would like to ask Mrs. Obama if her family and the families of all the congress-people will be covered by the same plan that as rest of us.

I am all for a government run healthcare plan.  I have seen no real hard evidence that the level of care would go down.  I have seen individual stories full of "what-if's" but nothing that really concerns me.  I think that doctors should get a salary like the rest of us and be happy. 

I have great coverage through my work, really great.  My husband however has terrible coverage through his work.  And I myself have had to go without coverage for many years before I got this job.  It is terrifying to have to live each day knowing you CAN'T get sick.  You CAN'T break a leg.  You could never afford it. 

Hi All,

I read through some of the input. First and foremost -- health coverage and health care needs to be available to everyone. People in the lower through middle classes are sliding through the cracks. Many do not have insurance and others make a bit too much to qualify for medicaid/public assistance but yet cannot afford insurance because they barely make enough to support their families. The new poverty level is around $25,000 to $30,000 these days. Anyone making $19,000 or less is below the poverty line.

Insurance costs and out-of-pocket expenses have continued to increase and the average person has difficulty paying those expenses. This is not good especially if they have sick children needing medical attention.

On an adult level, the insurances should not have the right to override your doctors decision. I have had several Rx that insurance has denied to cover. I have fibromyalgia and had to try a generic drug which I had a severe allergic reaction to before they would authorize any payment (partial) for Lyrica. Insurances and medicaid are all requiring preauthorization and often deny testing, medications, treatments that may be necessary to provide appropriate treatment. These authorizations also postpone treatment that is needed. ie-- antibiotics, some other rx, blood testing and or other testing. I am better off having a Health Savings plan than trying to pay co-pays, balances and deductibles, let alone the costs of maintaing insurance.

Doctors offices have lists of the insurances and have established billing amounts for services based on what each insurance allows. This is so they break even on the cost of their services. The "discount" for uninsured people is minimal and they pay out of pocket close to amounts billed through insurances.

Mental health is another area. There are several people I have dealt with recently that did not qualify for disability on their own (for health related disabilities) until they attempted suicide and were hospitalized without insurance and ended up with a mental health diagnosis.

This is sad when our own people cannot afford to buy insurance or qualify for benefits that they prepaid through the employment system. Even then they do not get enough to live on/with disability. Often mental health patients stop taking their medications because they cannot afford the copays or deductibles. This is bad when they decompensate mentally and is a definite health and safety hazard to themselves and others around them (paranoid schizo especially).

I am not a prejudice person but when I see other cultures receiving ten times more in benefits than our own culture -- something is wrong. Many of these cultures know how to work the system and have never worked since coming to the US.

I believe that many of the proposed health care reforms are needed so everyone gets appropriate healthcare across the board. I was once denied medicaid for my family (when my children were small) because we made $9 too much by their guidelines. Yet other cultures with the same income received full benefits. My husband and I both worked to support our family and often tiems was still NOT enough to meet our needs and basic living expenses. Let alone health care costs and insurance costs.