Single Payer Government Funded Healthcare Is "Pro-life"

I recently read a Gallup poll from last year that said the 58% of Americans support "Replacing the ACA with a federally funded healthcare program providing insurance for all Americans" to 37% who oppose it. 55% of Republicans oppose it. Another Gallup poll that said that about 69% of republicans are "pro life". So there is probably a lot of overlap in these two groups. The question I must raise is "How can a person consider him/herself "pro-life", while not believing that all people have the right to health care?" If you are not insured and get cancer, is your life worth less than a fetus in the womb? Why not fight for their lives too? It's more than apparent that the current system works against people being able to afford health care. It needs to change and the republicans have the power to change it, but they won't because of big donor contributions to their campaigns from the insurance and drug industries. Some of the Democrats are in bed with these industries too but they're not the majority and have less power anyway. But more of them are for universal healthcare. So why isn't the current healthcare system working? Price gouging. The insurance companies, drug companies and even hospitals will not stop price gouging on their own. Even while these practices are hurting and even killing people who can't afford to pay for medication or services, they are making record profits, so it works for them. Plus they own so many politicians. These politicians keep getting re-elected because of the money coming from these industries. It's a terrible cycle that has to stop. So what do we do? Start with getting these politicians out of office. They are not working for the interests of the people. People need to elect the people who say "no" to these types of donations so they can answer to the people. If single payer government funded health care were law, we would have power to negotiate prices. The costs of these services and drugs would be lower so the cost to the tax payers would be lower. People who get these benefits from their employer, could be given a raise with the amount that the costs will go down for the employer not having to pay for those benefits. There might be tax increases but since health care costs would be less, it would even out. It's been too long that Americans have had no say in our health care. We have to use our representatives to push for the rights of the people over the health care industry. If they were truly "pro-life", they would.

What The Affordable Care Act Did For Me

For all the people who want to repeal the ACA (Obamacare) without a replacement, keep in mind that you or someone close to you may be in need of it one day. This is my story: I am an architect. I worked at several architecture firms for many years. The first eleven years I worked, I had no health insurance. I was considered “contract” labor even though I worked in their offices full time like any employed person would. I don’t knock them for it, the architects that hired me didn’t have health insurance either, even though they were in their 50-60’s. I looked into private insurance but simply couldn’t afford it. The pay wasn’t great but I had to live and was paying off student loans for those first 10 years. When I gained enough experience, I decided to look for a job that had health insurance. I got one. I was employed for about 4 years with this firm until 2008. In that time, I got married to a wonderful man and we had a baby. The recession also started around that time, so when they looked at who to lay off, the lady with a new baby was the one that needed to go. Luckily, my husband had health insurance too so I was able to get on his plan. I found another job at a firm, but with no health insurance because I again would be considered contract. This was fine because of my husband’s insurance. Then I got pregnant again. Then I was laid off again, at about 5 months into my pregnancy. After having my second child, I starting have painful aches all over my body. I felt sick with chills that would come and go and I was abnormally fatigued. In the mornings, my hands would swell so badly that I no longer had wrinkles at the knuckles in my fingers and my feet hurt so badly, I was barely able to walk. I was in immense pain whenever I moved for the first 3 hours of the day until it would slowly subside but really never go away. After many doctors visits, I finally was told I had Rheumatoid Arthritis. It was severe. So I was put on medication that cost about $2000 a month. With that medication, I was able to function again. I was able to hold my children. I was able to fix my daughters hair, tie their shoes and the pain finally started to go away. After about a month of getting my diagnosis, we received a diagnosis of autism for my son. He was four years old, not talking much and actually lost words so we decided to get him evaluated. It was one of the biggest heartbreaks of my life. You think you’re ready to hear something like that about your child but no. It's devastating. He was able to receive ABA therapy. The insurance company told me it was because of the Affordable Care Act that insurance companies were required to cover it. The co-pay was about $190 a week but we were determined to have him talking to us and we received help from his grandmother. After he turned five, we decided to start him in school. His therapy decreased along with the co-pay to about $45 a week. Then my husband was laid off... well, partially. They kept us on the insurance while my husband worked for them under contract occasionally when they needed him. It was very generous of them because the premium was about $1500 a month and rising. In that time, he began taking on other clients. I wasn’t able to get full time employment because my son needed to go to therapy and I couldn’t leave him in aftercare at school. But I also started being able to get clients because of a website that sends me leads for people that need architects. After a rough year, we had enough clients that we could pay our bills. Then my husband was dropped off of the insurance. We applied for insurance through the ACA website and it was indeed affordable. And since we made so little the previous year, the kids qualified for LACHIP, which in Louisiana, is Medicaid. ABA therapy for my son was then fully covered with no co-pay. We’re still not able to save money but we are able to pay our bills and slowly pay off the debt we accrued in the rough previous year. Now there are people who want to take away the only means we have to afford our insurance. Price, Trump's pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services Department also wants to do away with the CHIP program. Why on earth is that a good idea? Is he saying that children shouldn’t have health care if their parents can’t afford it? I shouldn’t have treatment for RA, because I am self employed? People really need to think bigger than what is in front of them. You may be in a good place, with a good job but that could easily go away. What happened to empathy in this country? We need a system that helps people, all people. With the rising costs of hospitals and doctor visits, drugs and insurance, I think the only way to correct it is through universal, single payer, government funded health insurance. Perhaps they could start with the public option and expand it to everyone.

Fox News Blacks Out Women's Protest

Foxnews is blacking out the women's protest. There's nothing about it. It's front page news on pretty much every other major news source. On the Foxnews channel, they're are keeping the camera footage on people sitting in chairs, waiting for the prayer. I hope all the Foxnews watchers will please be open to seeing that there is more out there going on then they are letting on. You are being fed propaganda. Update: They did finally talk about it briefly but not to the extent of the other news channels.

President-elect No Longer

I'm watching the Trump Inaugural speech. Do people really think he will be doing right by all Americans when he and so many of his cabinet appointees are billionaires who have no idea of the struggles of poor and middle class Americans? It seems a little silly if it weren't so sad. I am a little optimistic when it comes to him negotiating with drug companies. That's if he's able get pass the pharma-paid people in the Legislature. Other than that, this administration seems pretty scary. Who needs healthcare after all?

Why Health Insurance Premiums Went Up

It didn't make sense. Why would a health insurance company make a decision to pay more for a drug? Then it hit me. It was for profit after all. I don’t know why I was so surprised. First off, I should tell you that I have a chronic condition that requires medication so that I can function. And it is pricy. So I also require health insurance in order to afford this medication. Since my husband is a small business owner and I am self-employed, we have to buy our own insurance. We have been on insurance through the ACA for about a year and a half. I previously was able to get my medication from Rite Aid, which the pharmacist told me cost about $2000 for a month's worth. This is when I had Blue Cross Blue Shield(BCBS) insurance through a group plan. But then that plan would no longer be available to us and we had to get insurance through the ACA. We chose BCBS as our provider but I noticed they created a subsidiary for use for the ACA, HMO Louisiana. With this insurance plan, they told me that I could only buy the drug through a specialty pharmacist, and not just any specialty pharmacist, CVS Specialty Pharmacist. When I received the statement showing what they spent, it cost about $4100 for a month worth of medication. This didn't make any sense to me. Why would they make the decision to spend more? Then I read about the MRL, the Medical Ratio Loss. This states that insurance companies can only make a certain amount of profit from the insurance premiums, that 80-85% has to be spent on medical care. So what they did was choose the most expensive way to pay for drugs so that they can increase the amount they can get from premiums and increase their profits. So everything is going up because their profits can only go up when they spend more money. There was a loophole and they found it and now its costing everyone more money. I'm sure because it is not easily explained but easy to hide in the details, most people won't know they are doing this. But it really needs to be addressed. In the meantime, if the legislators want to do actual good and get costs lower, they should write a provision to the ACA stating that it is illegal to drive costs up by artificial means...even while they are trying to dismantle it.

It's a sad day in Algiers.

Last day at Holy Name School: Algiers Point school founded in 1857

This is the place where I learned how to calculate butters.