Where we find ourselves now regarding our health care is based on the "Big Lie", laid upon us by greedy, conniving private insurance companies. We were told that getting rid of wasteful government health care and given over to the "for profit" corporations, we would see such quality management that our rates would go down.
I recall arguing with some of my co-workers at the time. They planned to switch and could not understand my decision to stay with my state plan. The problem was, it didn't matter. The time came when their services went down and the cost went up. The rapid rise in the price of medications put an end to my low cost prescriptions. Other rising costs forced my co-op to lay off nurses and replace them with clerks. Suddenly, for the first time, I was paying a co-payment and coverage for my family, which had been covered under my monthly payment, was now a new separate charge. Then the co-payments were raised and one co-payment did not take you through a day of appointments, it was applied to each doctor or service you received, even if it was all related to the same health concern. Then they no longer called me each year for my Wellness Checkup. Getting a general physical became a joke.
Then they began cutting out service areas. And surprise, surprise, Jefferson County was dropped. Retired state workers could no longer receive their services. This drove me straight into the clutches of the "for profit ghouls".
My payments have risen each year, sometimes as much as $100. and my co-payments are high. Fortunately I have Medicare, but my wife is not yet eligible and so we pay a huge price for her coverage. It's even worse than that, but suffice it to say our health coverage continues to shrink in quality and rise in cost.
Carl Jarvis
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