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Health Care Insurance Stories
“This
is the letter I wrote to the Governor which tells of the difficulties
I have had with the health care system in California.”
January 21, 2007
Dear Governor Schwarzenneger,
I am writing to you in support of SB 840.
I am a 33-year-old woman running my own small business in San Francisco.
I have an undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University
and an MBA from Berkeley¹s Haas School of Business.
Two years ago I decided to leave behind my successful career in Internet
Marketing to cut my own path. I wanted my time to be my own, and I wanted
to create a work-life balance that allowed me to be healthy and happy
and left me with energy to be a better member of my community. What I
found even more difficult than coming up with business plans or finding
clients, however, was getting affordable individual health coverage from
a health insurance provider. You see, I was turned down for the basic,
low-premium plans, and told I could only get high-premium plans with sliced
and diced versions of their offerings that essentially left me uncovered
for the help I was most
likely to need.
I was furious. I am a healthy, thriving woman, who, as an adult, has had
no major medical expenses, aside from getting my tonsils removed after
my first year of college. However, while I was working in the Internet
start-up world, I developed migraines. That was the reason the insurance
companies used to deny me coverage. Migraines on my health record. Migraines
for which I had been prescribed medication, which sometimes worked to
alleviate the migraines, but was never preventative. Migraines against
which I launched a personal attack, researching every possible cure and
preventative home-remedy, including liver cleanses, changes in diet, Chinese
herbs, green-tea, etc. I did seek the help of an acupuncturist, and my
employer-based Blue Cross insurance plan allowed me a discount on these
services, but only for a limited number of sessions, the rest of which
I covered on my own.
Miraculously, after I quit my high-stress job, my migraines began to occur
less frequently and for shorter durations. Then, based on the recommendations
of friends, I stopped taking the birth control pill I had been on for
8 years, and the migraines went away all together. I had found my own
way to rid myself of migraines, which included the very change in lifestyle
that was preventing me from getting health insurance. I felt as if
I was being encouraged not to get health insurance. Not to make the healthy
and responsible choice for myself. And I felt betrayed. By whom, I wasn¹t
sure. By the system? By my government? By my own body? I only knew that
here I was trying to be a responsible, self-contributing individual seeking
an alternative to Corporate America, and I was being denied this basic
right. Not for lack of effort on my part, but because I was deemed a high-cost
risk and was being priced out of the market for health coverage.
My decision? I continued to pay the very high cost of Cobra coverage,
since at least if I was going to be paying exorbitant fees, I should get
all the benefits my previous employer was able to come by, to which, as
an individual, I did not have access. Then, months after I had gone out
on my own, when my migraines abated, I visited my doctor, and she kindly
put a note in my file saying ³Problem resolved. No more migraines.²
At that point, I reapplied for health insurance, and Blue Shield of California
finally took
me on.
It¹s been about
a year and a half since I received individual coverage what most people
call ³catastrophic coverage,² since that¹s all I can afford
during these early years of my business. I have visited my primary care
physician twice but meanwhile, my premium has been increased by 20%, and
I recently received a letter suggesting it would be raised again, Plus,
my insurance plan does not cover birth control other than the pill (and
I will
no longer take the birth control pill as it was a major contributor to
my migraines), so I had to go outside of my plan and visit a Planned Parenthood
clinic to receive cost-effective care. Again, my health insurance options
provide incentives for me not to be responsible.
This system is not
working for me. I find myself taking my health into my own hands to avoid
the high cost of treatment and to keep any ailments off of my health record,
in case it works against me in the future. I resent the insurance companies
for this. They seem interested only in maximizing their profits, not caring
for human beings. As the owner of my own business, with a background in
economics and accounting, I understand the importance of the cost-benefit
ratio. However, health insurance supposedly exists to provide benefits.
Benefits for the human beings who reside in our state and our
country. I believe that with this kind of public good, we must sacrifice
some profit in order to gain greater benefits for all. I believe that
SB 840 is a good start toward providing Californians with true benefits.
Not benefits balanced against corporate greed. Not benefits that leave
out people like me who are working for themselves or running a small business.
But benefits that actually benefit all people.
Please consider letting
go of the health coverage plan you recently put forth, and working from
the starting point described in SB 840. I applaud you for taking on this
issue at all. It is tangled and emotional, and surely raises the ire and
passions of many major constituencies. However, I encourage you to make
a real difference. To try something responsible and radical. If any state
can be radical, it¹s California. Let¹s show the rest of
the country how to offer its citizens the true and simple benefit of affordable
health coverage for all people, regardless of their employer or what their
medical history comprises.
Thank you for your consideration.
Taura Null
San Francisco, CA
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