Today I went to a public meeting about health insurance for retirees and senior citizens. My experience, other than suffering from astronomical monthly premiums, has been quite benign. I feel well-covered and well-treated.
Today I heard stories from many people in the audience who are much less nourished by the system. For them, it's a tragic nightmare. These are people in my own city, who had jobs just like I did. Last year their coverage was, according to them, trouble-free and quite satisfactory. Overnight, it became a horror story of bureaucratic tangles, supposedly due to a last minute corporate take-over.
Some of the problems: finding out you can't have a doctor anymore that you've gone to for 20 years. You can't get a list of doctors leaving you with no way to get a prescription re-filled. Not being allowed to get eye exams by an opthamologist, only opticians. Over and over people are saying that there's no-one to listen and the people who should be listening deny access to any communication. One of the stories was definitely a life and death story. Multiply the tangles the farther you get from a well-populated county.
I've always been aware of the problem of lack of coverage; this, however, showed me that there are problems even for those of us who are covered. Now I'd like to find out more about this. What is a GOOD plan to solve these problems and still have decent health care? How can we make it happen?
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