The Mess That Is Health Care

With the ongoing health care fiasco in the United States, we all have to take seriously where we are going with this. Any one politician can’t make everybody happy. New federal rules allow insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. This is terrifying for those of us with pre-existing conditions because it locks out people from getting coverage. The mess that is health care is becoming a hot mess every passing day. New rules allow insurers to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, which institute annual lifetime caps.

Short-term insurance plans were allowed for three months under Obama, but Trump administration rules mean that insurers need to extend the coverage up to three years. However, there is a California bill, whose author is Senator Ed Hernandez-D Azusa, who would outlaw the plans altogether. Governor Jerry Brown has until September 30th to veto this bill or sign it into law. These new plans can bankrupt people or so Hernandez believes, which is understandable. The Affordable Care Act takes into consideration consumer protections, as outlined in this landmark legislation, started in March 2010.

Conservatives are trying to continue to keep health care expensive. This doesn’t solve problems. Liberals going along with whatever they say also doesn’t solve existing problems. The market means for people who are healthy to have coverage so that they don’t need to worry about the opposite. You can have a disability and get coverage from your employer but the thing is if you lose your employer, you lose your coverage. Conservatives love to ask: “why should I pay for your healthcare?”

It would seem that the ultimate goal of having health insurance is to provide coverage at lower costs depending on how many people are in the risk pool. Insurers need to provide clear rules about what is covered and what is not covered. As a consumer, you have to read your insurance policy thoroughly in order to know what is covered and what is not covered. People with pre-existing conditions get screwed over no matter how you look at it. Some people in the current administration would say that they are providing more “options” but the thing is, higher premiums for people with pre-existing conditions means that they are outright punishing people with pre-existing conditions for existing in the first place. Americans pay “twice as much for healthcare as people in other developed countries."

The only thing to dislike about the Affordable Care Act is the penalty most people were forced to pay for not having insurance. This actually needs to be discussed more. The current administration has done something right for once by removing the penalty for not having insurance as a matter of principle in making sure that individuals have security about their health care. Senate Bill 910 would ban insurers from selling or renewing short-term plans. Senate Bill 1180 could attempt to increase Medi-Cal enrollment as well as make sure that those on Medi-Cal do not have to work in order to receive benefits.

Senate Bill 1375 would ban individuals from forming “association health plans,” not required to comply with The Affordable Care Act mandates. Assembly Bill 2499 would require health plans to spend 80 percent of premium dollars on health care. The fact is that people with pre-existing conditions need coverage. They have earned it because The Affordable Care Act offered them a chance to get covered for some, the very first time in their lives. If the pre-existing condition clause caused taxes to rise, this would make support for removing it being low. The fact is that people with pre-existing conditions need coverage or else Republican and Democrat lawmakers would be expecting us to die since that is what happens to somebody with a mental health condition or a physical health problem if they do not have coverage.

Works Cited:

NPR

The Sacramento Bee

The Federalist

LA Times