Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The Human Cost of Cuts – Linnea’s Story
People with HIV or AIDS and their providers rallied at the State Capitol today to oppose the governor’s proposed budget cuts to a variety or programs which literally keep people alive. During the public comment period of Conference Committee, people told us about the importance of these programs in their daily lives. The testimony below from a brave 24 year old woman born with HIV was especially poignant.
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2 comments:
I feel very sorry for this young woman. She lost her job, and lives either on welfare or unemployment. It is tragic.
At the same time, problem she faces is not one that is best solved by simply paying more and more. In order to pay more money to more people, it has to come from people who work to feed and care for their own families. Draining the life blood from those who are employed for the sake of those who are not is not the solution.
In this young woman's case, the solution is to force insurance companies to start behaving like insurance companies. Require them to stop cherry picking their subscribers. Force them to take assigned risk patients at the same rate that they require of a person who subscribes in a group. A person coming from an employee group is not necessarily any healthier than a self-employed or unemployed person, so the only reason that those not in a group pay more is based on the cost of marketing health care plans.
Centralize the enrollment process for health care and compel the insurance companies to take their portion of the assigned risk patients in the very same way that auto insurance companies must take assigned risk drivers.
Achieving this will require that legislators actually start thinking like business people, that they actually start working full time, not just one-third of a year expecting to receive full time pay. I am enough of a realist to know that if this is what it will take to solve this young woman's problem, she will probably die because in spite of the tearful testimony she offered, I will bet that not a single legislator did a single thing personally to improve her condition. No one sent her a check from his or her own bank account. Instead, they used her testimony like fodder to take money from everyone else's accounts. How cowardly.
Boo Hoo It is too bad that she has HIV since birth and she's dependant on the state to cover her meds and medical care. Hey I'm not a callous individual but when my children were sick or who covers my medical bills with my ailment since 1993. I DO OUT OF MY OWN POCKET.There are days when it takes my 30 to 40 mins just to get out of a car dure to the pain factor that is attibuted to my ailment.I'm not calling out to the state to cover my medical expense or to pay me (welfare,State disability even thou I'm taxed on both of them but an additioal 2.3% on SDI).
Stop with the circus sideshow
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