Phyllis's health care story

Note: I feel very strongly about the health care crisis that is crippling our country. As such, I feel that we as Universal Life Church minister's should be outspoken on this and several other issues, but as this is the one that is at the forefront of debate in Washington right now, I will be highlighting stories such as this for the next few weeks or so. Tell me what you think by sharing your thoughts on the ULCMA forum.

Phyllis's health care story

I am a practicing physician assistant. Almost every day an insurance company denies something that I have tried to do for one of my patients, either prescribe a medicine or order a procedure. I have now started to prepare patients for the possibility that their health care will be "rationed" by somebody at their insurance company and follow it with this: "the people opposed to a new system of health care in this country want you to believe it will end up 'rationing'health care. Health care is and has been rationed for a very long time. I think it's about time the playing field was leveled and we all understood what the rules are." I'm soing my part to educate the health care consumer, are you? Call your members of Congress and demand that this happens!

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Introducing the Concept of Choice Into Our Health Care System

Public plan option. Three words in the health care reform process about which much has been said -- a lot of it meant to stoke fears. Amidst all of the mischaracterizations being thrown around, let's focus on the most important of those three words: Option.

As in choice.

As in something that isn't common for American families when it comes to their health care.

If your family has health coverage through your employer, that certainly brings some peace of mind. But there's still a good chance that only one insurance plan is available to you. If your premiums are high, if you can't choose the doctor you want or if your plan refuses to cover your pre-existing condition, there's little hope for improvement.

In recent health care reform listening sessions I held in New Jersey, a top complaint of families who already have health insurance is that their claims keep getting denied. Without any other real options available to them, even families that have health coverage are struggling to get affordable treatment.

Meanwhile, if you're not offered health coverage through work and don't qualify for Medicaid or Medicare, then you really have no health insurance choice at all. That's just not right.

Read the rest of Senator Menendez' post here.

For more information about the Universal Life Church Minister's Association at ulcma.webs.com

Why You May Be Stuck Holding The Bill For The Largest Taxpayer Rip Off

By Dean Baker

This is the time when the excrement starts hitting the fan. The lobbyists are in overdrive, rounding up members of Congress just like the cowboys of the Old West would bring in the herd.

The industry groups will also have their friends in the news media working overtime hyping any possible obstacle to health care reform. And they are filling the airwaves with scary ads, warning that people will never be able to see a doctor again if meaningful health care reform passes.

Since there are trillions of dollars at stake, the effort is understandable. The basic story is simple. The insurance, pharmaceutical and medical supply industries, along with the hospitals and the American Medical Association, have rigged the deck so that they get rich at the public's expense. They have structured our health care system so that we pay more than twice as much per person as people in other wealthy countries, even though we get worse care by many measures.

The bloat in the health care sector is projected to grow rapidly over the next decade as health care consumes an ever larger share of the economy. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that just the increase in health care spending share of the economy over the next decade will cost us $4.3 trillion. That is equal to a health care tax of $57,000 for an average family of four.

Read the rest of Dean's blog here.

Self-Preservation: The Real Reason the GOP Opposes Health Care Reform

We've heard all the reasons, listed ad infinitum on Fox News and, particularly, at length on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Health care reform will cost too much. It will bankrupt the country. It will force government bureaucrats between patients and doctors -- as though this was somehow worse than our current system, in which insurance-company bureaucrats insert themselves between patients and doctors and, with a profit motive in mind, lose themselves in the sort of banal evil that has created one horror story after another in our health care system.

Read the rest of Dan's post here.

You can find out more about the Universal Life Church Minister's Association at ulcma.webs.com