It's hard to believe so many are OK with their health care

By Debbie Williams

I am extremely peeved. I'm thrilled the House of Representatives passed a health-care reform bill, as lame as it is. I'm looking forward to it being kicked into some sort of beneficial thing to the people of the United States, hopefully in my son's lifetime. It doesn't appear it's going to happen in mine.

I bought my own individual plan after my husband's small employer could no longer afford to pay for mine and dropped me. I got it through Aetna. It didn't cover much, has a $2,500 a year deductible and only covers well care. The $219 a month premium was guaranteed until I was 62 in 2012. I was only looking for something to get me through until I could qualify for Medicare.

Imagine my surprise when I received a letter last Saturday, the same day the House passed their weak-kneed bill, raising my premium to $277 a month, a 26.5 percent increase, after only the first year I've had the "coverage." Same crappy coverage, I think, unless they've reduced what they cover, which I can see coming.

Beware. I think insurance premiums are going to start taking a big jump between now and when a real health-reform bill is passed. These for-profit insurance company money-grubbing SOBs are going to raise premiums as high as they can before our slow-as-molasses-on-a-cold-day government gets anything done.

If my husband's insurer raises his premium their standard 19 percent again or more, it will probably be dropped by his small employer because they can't afford it. Between what my husband pays for his share, what I pay for mine, and our deductibles, what we pay for health care has now reached almost 34 percent of our gross income.

I voted for hope. I have none. I voted for change. I see none. Do I write my representatives? You bet I do. Including Barack Obama and people who say they don't represent me but do like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Olympia Snowe and noted puppet Joe Lieberman. I tried to e-mail Michele Bachmann. Try it sometime. You can't. So I wrote her a paper letter. Hopefully her snail-mail address is real.

I understand health-care reform is a difficult issue. What I have trouble understanding is that so many people out there think they have such great coverage they don't want something better. I don't understand that at all, because I don't believe for a second they do. And I don't understand why they're standing in the way of the rest of us who don't. Tax me and my husband 15 percent of our income, put us on public option, and let us get the care we need. We're still working, and will be until we drop. Hell, we'd be way ahead.

I just hope we make it to Medicare. You know, that great socialistic, government-run health-care insurance program that seems to work so well for so many. Oh, and by the way, the Nazi, Communist, Socialist, Marxist, Muslim, Radical-Christian President Barack Obama was a baby when that was put into place. Unlike 7-month-old Maddie, the granddaughter of the chief of staff for Arizona Rep. John Shadegg, whom the congressman exploited on the floor of the House, I doubt Obama had a grasp of the impact and cost of Medicare at the time. I'll have to ask my 6-month-old grandson in England his opinion on their excellent NHS coverage in that country for $500 a month for a family of five, including vision and dental. He might not be ready yet to offer an opinion, however. He's got another month to go before he's as well informed as Maddie.

Editor's note: Debbie Williams, a frequent letter writer, lives in Millfield.