HCFA will be posting a blog-a-day about why national health reform is good for Massachusetts.
These posts will include personal stories from people who have benefited from our state’s health reform law and how national health reform can help millions of others like them across the country.
My name is Kate and I’m a member of Health Care for All’s HelpLine. I’m also the family member of a cousin who died far too young because she couldn’t afford to pay for the health care she needed. This blog is dedicated to her.
Since I joined the HelpLine in 2005, I’ve heard thousands of stories from people across the country. More often than not, these stories are about how the health care system is not working for them and their families. These stories are horrific and will haunt me forever. And they are why I believe national health reform must pass now.
One of my first HelpLine calls was from a woman who told me her mother was uninsured and uninsurable. She said her mother had a large wound on her leg, and the only “care” she could receive was in the emergency room. I was shocked to learn that the ER only cleaned the wound, put a new bandage on it, and released her. This wasn’t sufficient. The wound didn’t heal because she could not afford follow-up treatment with a specialist. So, she returned to the emergency room each time the pain was too much to bear.
I’ve also received thousands of calls from folks in everyday situations. For example, the recently laid off worker who lost his employer sponsored health insurance and is unable to continue physical therapy; or the parent who suddenly lost their health insurance and is unable to take her asthmatic child to the doctor or pick up her inhalers.
These untreated medical conditions cause people great pain and suffering, and callers have told me they don’t know how much longer they can go on without relief. These are just a few real stories of how the health care system is failing and there are millions more.
America is crying out for relief for its chronic health care system illness.
Among the despair I hear from the HelpLine callers, there is good news.
More than 97% of Massachusetts’ residents now have health insurance and there are more affordable options available than ever before since health reform passed.
Massachusetts is proving that comprehensive health reform is possible. The best calls I receive, are from newly insured people across our state whose lives have been saved because a broad based group of stakeholders came together did the right thing. I urge Congress to finish the job it has started and pass comprehensive health care reform now. We can’t afford to wait any longer.
Kate Bicego
HelpLine Manager
MA health care reform has been a disaster for my family. My wife and I are fined about $2400 each year by the state of Massachusetts for not buying health insurance. I’m almost 60, been layoff, and jobs are hard to find. We live basically off our savings and investments and always paid our own medical costs; but, since receiving the fines our family budget is now out of balance, I‘ve had to reduced my insulin shots to save money; this will eventually lead to organ failure. The state is literally killing me with there fine. I’m being fined for being responsible and paying my own medical bills. If the fines continue and get bigger we plan on moving out of the state when I retire to save money; my pension will follow me and the state will loose out on our income tax revenue. Being fined for living? Being fined for not buying a financial product? I love the people of MA but hate its insensitive no-it-all politicians.
Both bills are good for those chronically sick.
A high deductable plan (where people pay cash for their yearly physical) is ILLEGAL in MA. A couple who paid cash and carried a high deductable plan was fined by the Socialists of Massachusetts, since their plan didn’t have all the bells and whistles, which through higher premiums, would subsidize the chronically sick.
NEWSFLASH: Not all of us were born with disease.
Get over it.
What’s next? You want drivers with 25 DWI’s under their belt to pay the same for auto insurance as a “MADD” member?
Thanks for share this information with us, I hope that you are right & it is really helps you & your people. I found some free EMR services provider are available & provide their services online.
We’ve closely looked at the bill that passed the House, and at the slightly different bill that passed the Senate. Most of the provisions in the two bills are similar.
Both bills are very good for Massachusetts. We expect the final bill to be a compromise between the House and Senate versions. This would be good for Massachusetts.
Kate,
How do you know that “national health reform is good for Massachusetts?
Have you seen any bill that will pass in both the House and Senate? If so, what’s in it?