False Choice in Public Option Debate

As I was watching the news this morning, the anchor and his interviewee kept saying how scared Americans are about their employers opting to support the “public option” rather than continue contracts with private health insurance providers and I thought to myself, “How is that different than any other year?”

Last year, my dad’s company changed insurance providers, as many companies do every year. My dad lost a significant portion of his vision coverage and his optometrist is no longer on the ‘in network’ provider list. And yet his premiums and deductible are higher. When he reviewed his health care package in January, there were no multiple choices for insurance providers, just different plans offered by the same provider.

Also last year, my insurance provider also raised their premiums and lowered coverage. The health insurance offered by my company doesn’t cover labs, x-rays, or medications for asthma. Now it’s little more than a discount plan. And I’m on the ‘optimum’ plan offered by my company. Again, when I went through my enrollment in December of 08, there is only one company listed, and the option to go to Afflac for a stopgap plan.

My grandma is the widow of a retiree of GM. She recently lost her dental coverage since GM’s collapse. She’s going in this week for a biopsy. She had cancer as a young adult and recently found a lesion that could be a recurrence, or so I expect the insurance company will claim. Her previous cancer was on her eye, which was removed when she was 26. The lesion is on her kidney some 52 years later.

So am I afraid that my company will opt for the public option? Not really. It couldn’t possibly be worse than what my company currently offers and I might even get vision coverage (not currently offered by my employer or my fiancé’s). And who knows, if it saves enough money, maybe they’ll be able offer all of us a miniscule raise to opt out. Is my dad afraid that his company will opt out? No. His company has enough employees in other countries that opting out wouldn’t make sense. As for my gran, she’s a conservative Republican who’s afraid that the public option won’t pass and she won’t be able to pay for long term care unless she sells her house.

The other major concern that has been raised by the opponents of the public option is that there will be ‘long lines’ to see our doctors.

For the last three months, I’ve been trying to get my doctor to call in a prescription and make an appointment. I have gotten the office several times, and finally succeeded in getting the appointment, but haven’t had any luck with the prescription she said was necessary when I was in her office. I finally went in to the office to try to get one of the nurse’s to write it out. I waited 20 minutes and was eventually told to call again and go home (Yes, I am getting a new doctor). The appointment I got? The first opening was in August. That’s a wait time of approximately 45 days from when I spoke with the office. That’s a wait of 70 to 80 days from the day that she asked me to make the appointment. The lines for treatment by specialists in Canadian hospitals are between 46 days for cancer patients and 18 weeks (126 days) for non-life threatening treatments. So my poor Dr is already acting like she’s operating in Canada.

To be fair, I also called my dentist last week with a concern and his office asked me, “Are you free right now?” I was in and back to playing WOW in less than thirty minutes. And the wait for my primary care physician is usually fairly low, so if I call thinking I have the flu, I can see him next week when I’m feeling better.