Friday, March 23, 2007

Health care in America, or lack thereof...

Dear Presidential Hopeful,

Team Hillary, you will need to convince me thoroughly about how you will change health care in America, after thoroughly messing it up during the first Clinton administration. Even as I worked diligently in my Fortune 500, Working Woman recommended jobs, you made my single mother life a living hell. First, I had to give up my favorite family doctors, then I had to change over to the preferred provider network, and finally I gave up and just threw in the HMO towel.

After working myself to death in corporate America, I quit working for that number one company, and started the life of a contract worker. Now I have less stress, no commitment to my job, AND NO HEALTH INSURANCE.

Sure, I could have stayed on with the number one company, but as I tell my current co-workers frequently, the amount of money I spend on health care today is no different than it was three years ago. If anything, my health care expenditures are less!

Believe me, I am not advocating that anyone live life without a safety net. I'm just stating that had I stayed at the top company, I would surely now be dead of a heart attack and financially drained, because there isn't much difference in my mind financially by having no health insurance.

Whereas I used to pay low co-pays, a trip to the emergency room less my $75.00 or $100.00 deductible would no less, wipe me out. As I signed my rights away to pay what health insurance didn't cover, I also signed myself up for being billed outrageous fees, only to learn that my insurance (buyer beware - that insurance was self-insured by the company I worked for, and they were really making the rules) was only going to pay for 1/4 of it, if at all. That left me holding the financial bag.

Tell me, Mrs. President, how are you going to fix the messes you made during the first Clinton administration?

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