Too Close To Home

Two (apparently) unrelated topics; one disgruntled South Carolina blogger.

Topic One: Healthcare

From The State, Columbia, SC's newspaper, these headlines:

SC health insurers cutting coverage to some kids

"'As national health care reform takes effect, health insurance carriers in South Carolina have halted access to new individual policies for children - a move that could leave families unable to find insurance for their healthy children', advocates said.

Starting this week, insurance companies are prohibited by law from denying plans to children 19 years old and younger who have pre-existing medical conditions.

South Carolina insurance companies said they must suspend new policies for that market because the sudden influx of sick children, and of those whose parents enroll them after learning of a major illness or accident, would drive up premiums for all policyholders.

Ann Roberson, spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Insurance, said carriers are waiting on "additional guidance" from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services about implementing the expanded coverage. They want to know, for example, whether an open enrollment period will be defined to prevent patients from getting coverage only after they need it, Roberson said.

'I certainly hope the administration will provide the appropriate clarification to insurance providers so they can re-enter this market," Republican Rep. Joe Wilson said in a statement.'" (My emphasis).

And I say, Joe Wilson, you lie.

You'll remember Joe Wilson, of course, the impulse-disordered voice from the floor, yelling at the President during his address to Congress on health care reform. (Obviously, Joe's uncontrollable outburst brought on by  his pre-existing condition). The President stated, "There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false - the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally." And then Joe Wilson made fool of himself. And he lied again later when he attempted to explain his outburst, claiming to be an immigration attorney. Joe Wilson was a real estate attorney--first, last, and always. Make a note of that and we'll get back to it.


Both Joe Wilson and the SC insurers mentioned above are lying. Insurers are not suspending new individual coverage to healthy children because the new regulations are a little confusing. They are reneging on their pledge to honor the spirit of the law. They are taking advantage of every possible loophole in order to avoid compliance with new laws that might cut into their gigantic profits...just as they always have. Just as they did when they refused to cover children with pre-existing conditions before the new healthcare reform act.


True, many Americans are confused by the new laws and need more information, but--trust me on this--the insurance companies are NOT confused. Their attorneys, whose billable hours are paid for by your premiums, have been pouring over every jot and tittle of the new law for months. No, the insurance companies are counting on the confusion of the average American to keep from getting called out for deception.


Consumer groups are furious, naturally. In California, another state where the largest insurance carriers are refusing to write new individual policies for children, Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a consumer advocacy organization, stated to the LATimes, "Insurers need to decide if they are in the business of providing care or denying coverage." 


Bless your heart, Mr. Wright; insurance companies are not remotely interested in providing either care or coverage. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting your money as premiums and hanging on to it by their teeth like bulldogs 'til they draw blood. 


The South Carolina Department Of Insurance, Consumer Health Insurance site is...well, toothless. From their FAQ site today--no changes in sight:

Can an insurance company turn me down for individual health insurance coverage? If a company can turn me down, how can I obtain health insurance coverage?

 Yes, you can be turned down. The South Carolina Department of Insurance has no jurisdiction over the underwriting decisions of an insurance company; therefore, we can't require they insure you.

If you are turned down for coverage, you can get coverage through the South Carolina Health Insurance Pool (SCHIP). 

SCHIP is a high risk pool for people who have been turned down by private insurers due to health problems. The issue at hand today is entirely different. Insurers aren't turning down sick children; they are refusing to sell ANY new individual policies to healthy children.

That means that if, for instance, your employer's health policy is too expensive for your family of four and you choose to shop for individual insurance, you can obtain today it for yourself and your wife, but not for your children.

Topic Two: Immigration

We found out yesterday that our neighbor Edgar is being deported to Costa Rica on October 1st. He is the hardest-working man I think I've ever met...all temperatures, all humidities, all day, every day. Edgar owns a lawn and landscape service. When we're lucky, we can hire his service to babysit our yard while we're out of town, and, at those times, I don't dread coming home to face the results; I look forward to it. As he always told us, he'd be driving by our house every day anyway, so he could easily see what needed to be done.

Many of Edgar's employees have been able to obtain their US citizenship in recent years, but not Edgar. He's been here for many years and has run his business reliably and well. Wherever we see him, he smiles, waves, and calls us by name. His house is always tidy-looking and his yard looks fabulous.

In April of this year, Representative Eric Bedingfield, R-Greenville, introduced an immigration bill to the SC House that he modeled to be "virtually the same" as the Arizona immigration law that had just been signed. "It provides a procedure for verifying a person's immigration status under certain circumstances and provides for the arrest of a person suspected of being present in the United States unlawfully," Bedingfield says. 


According to a poll published today, " sixty-nine percent of Palmetto State voters favor passage of an immigration law like Arizona's in South Carolina, higher than support nationally.  Just 20% are opposed to such a law." That same poll shows a 52% to 36% lead for tough-on-immigration Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley over Democratic candidate Vincent Sheheen. 


I fear that, as the election rhetoric heats up, South Carolina politicians will be pointing to deportation numbers to bolster their own numbers. I also fear that voters haven't much to choose between the two candidates when it comes to immigration. The State newspaper reports, 

Sheheen said a South Carolina law approved in 2008 is a better law because it sets tougher standards for verifying employee residency and provides local law enforcement the ability to enforce immigration law.

“Ours is frankly tougher,” Sheheen said. “We need to fully implement the law that we passed and that’s not been done.”

I don't hold out much hope for my neighbor. My husband wrote to our State Senator asking that he do what he can for Edgar, but there's so little time. Edgar tells us that he has spent $30,000 on attorney fees trying to appeal the deportation. I don't know why he cannot stay and I don't know who represented him legally, but I know it couldn't have been Joe Wilson.

Health Care Reform: Guest post by Barbara O'Brien

Yesterday I was honored to be contacted by Barbara O’Brien, who blogs for The Mahablog, Crooks and Liars, AlterNet, and elsewhere on the progressive political and health blogosphere. She is also a panelist at the Yearly Kos Convention and a featured guest blogger at the Take Back America Conference in Washington, DC.

She asked me if she could submit a guest post about health care reform, to which I responded with an enthusiastic “yes!” Here it is:

Health Care Reform Will Help Everybody

“Many Americans assume the new health care reform act will benefit mostly the poor and uninsured and hurt everyone else, according to polls. As Matt Yglesias wrote, “Basically, people see this as a bill that will take resources from people who have health insurance and give it to people who don’t have health insurance.” Those who still oppose the reform say that people ought to pay for their own health care.

We all believe in the virtues of hard work and self-reliance, but these days it’s a fantasy to think that anyone but the mega-wealthy will not, sooner or later, depend on help from others to pay medical bills. And that’s true no matter how hard you work, how much you love America, or how diligently you take care of yourself. The cost of medical care has so skyrocketed that breaking an arm or leg could cost as much as a new car. And if you get cancer or heart disease — which can happen even to people who live healthy lifestyles — forget about it. The disease will not only clean you out; it will leave a whopping debt for your survivors to pay.

And the truth is, we all pay for other peoples’ health care whether we know it or not. When people can’t pay their medical bills, the cost of their health care gets added to everyone else’s bills and insurance premiums. When poor people use emergency rooms as a doctor of last resort, their care is not “free.” You pay for it.

Another common fantasy about medical care is that the “free market” provides incentives for medical companies to develop innovative new drugs and treatments for disease without government subsidy. It’s true that private enterprise is very good at developing profitable health care products. But not all medical care can be made profitable.

For years, the U.S. government has been funding medical research that the big private companies don’t want to do because there is too much cost for the potential profit. This is especially true for diseases that are rare and expensive to treat. An example of a recent advance made possible by government grants include new guidelines for malignant pleural mesothelioma treatment developed by MD Anderson Cancer Center researchers. Another is a blood screening test developed by mesothelioma doctors like thoracic surgeon Dr. David Sugarbaker. The health reform act provides for more dollars for such research, from which even many of the tea party protesters will benefit.

The biggest fantasy of all was that people who had insurance didn’t have to worry about health care costs. But the fact is that in recent years millions of Americans have been bankrupted by medical costs, and three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance. And yes, insurance companies even dumped hard-working, law-abiding patriots. But the health care reform act will put an end to that, and now America’s hard-working, law-abiding patriots are more financially secure, whether they like it or not.”

Thanks, Barbara, for this thoughtful and timely post.

Please come back again!

Pulling the Plug on Granny

Cartoon created by TexasTrailerParkTrash (aka Ima June Pullet)