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Whoops, a few days without an entry here, but I’m not going to feel too bad about it, because it’s been a bit of a busy week for me. I’m looking forward to a day at home on Friday!
I’ve had three medical appointments in the past three days, and I have one more to go on Monday (the dentist). Good news on all fronts so far, with a negative mammogram, healthy eyes with no significant change from last year, and a good checkup with my doctor today. She is such a gem, and we even had a few laughs today. As we were finishing up, she said, “You’re doing great, and I’m happy that I don’t have to yell at you about anything!” I laughed and said, “And I’m happy to not be yelled at!”
I got my flu shot today, too. I have a slightly sore shoulder, but nothing major, and I’m always happy to get my flu shot taken care of. Happy to do it this early in the season, too! Everyone go get your flu shot, okay?
I’ve also had to make sure I was at home a couple of these afternoons, for a DirecTV technician (all fixed!) and a wine shipment (all delivered!). This is much more activity than I normally deal with, so I am ready for a down day!
I’ve been watching the shenanigans in Washington. And by ‘shenanigans,’ I mean the complete and utter batshittery of the Republican party right now. I’m not going to go into it at all here. I’m sure you’re all paying attention, and I’m also sure that you all know what I think about this bullshit and how disgusted I am.
What really astounds me is that all of this is because they want to keep millions of people from getting health insurance. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week as I’ve gone to my various appointments to obtain preventive care. I’ve been fortunate in having employer-subsidized health insurance for my entire career. Since I worked in healthcare, it was always very good insurance, too. There were times when I paid maybe $10 a month for insurance. I usually had a copay, but that is still some pretty great insurance.
The reason I supported the Affordable Care Act from the beginning is because I want everyone to have that. I want everyone to have access to preventive care. I want everyone to get checkups and screenings and have a doctor that they can turn to when they have a medical problem. I don’t want anyone to be wiped out by medical bills, or have to declare bankruptcy because they get cancer or have a heart attack or a stroke, or whatever.
So while I watched the teabagger faction of the Republican party completely lose their shit this week, I also watched with joy as the exchanges opened on Tuesday and people began signing up. There are definitely problems with access, and some of that seems to be both volume and software. I am confident that these issues will be fixed soon. I have plenty of friends and family who may qualify for the exchanges and for subsidies, and my fingers are crossed for them.
As for the Republicans whose goal is to stop the Affordable Care Act, in the words of Austin Powers, that train has sailed.
A big story in a rather quiet news week was that a conservative group called FreedomWorks is encouraging young people to not sign up for the Affordable Care Act’s health exchanges. Their reasoning seems to be that the exchanges really will work because young, healthy people will sign up, bringing the cost down for everyone and allowing more people to be able to get health insurance. So they’re encouraging them to not sign up and pay the penalty. Ha! Ha! Wouldn’t it be funny if a bunch of young adults did that? They wouldn’t have any health insurance at all! That’s...just...so...
Hilarious.
Way to stick it to The Man, kids!
::sigh::
Except the thing is, they’re not just sticking it to The Man. They’re sticking it to themselves. As Jonathan Cohn’s brief article states, you don’t just get to sign up for insurance when you get sick; there are open enrollment periods (just like in every other employer-based health plan in which I’ve participated), and if you happen to get seriously ill or hit by a car or bitten by a monitor lizard, or any of a number of bad things that can happen out there in the great big scary world, and it happens to be in a non-enrollment period, you’re shit outta luck, my friend. You will be stuck with one mofo of a hospital bill, and although most places will try to work with you, they WILL come after you and try to get you to pay. You think your college loans are bad? Try dealing with a hospital bill with three or four—or even five—zeroes after a 6 or an 8 or whatever.
It’s bad enough that there are people out there who are trying to convince young adults to go against their best interests. I mean, seriously...who doesn’t want the security of health insurance? When I was a young adult, I had the usual false feelings of invincibility that most young adults do; I felt like I had my whole life ahead of me and nothing really bad could happen to me. Even so, I never even considered going without health insurance. My husband at the time was in the military, so I got everything free of charge there. (Can you believe that damn government giving me free health care like that?!) When we divorced, I immediately got on the plan offered by the hospital where I was working.
The thought of being without health insurance terrifies me. I saw firsthand over the course of my career how high medical costs are, and how a normally healthy person can be devastated by an unexpected illness. Heart attack, stroke, disseminated intravascular coagulation, a broken leg that throws a clot to your lungs and causes a pulmonary embolism, a disseminated fungal infection in a guy that went out hunting...the list is endless! I don’t live my life in a state of paranoia, but I DO understand that all these things can happen, and often do. Why on earth would anyone be foolish enough to not accept reasonably priced health insurance if it were made available to them?
So it’s bad enough that these FreedomWorks yahoos are encouraging young adults to do just that. What is even more horrible to me is that there are kids that are actually falling for it. I honestly don’t know what they’re thinking, except...well, they probably aren’t thinking. They’re not reasoning it through. They are letting themselves be duped by these special interest groups who are operating on a political agenda. Groups who think that it is a bad thing to have more Americans having the security of health insurance. What kind of a heartless bastard actually thinks that? I’d really like to know.
To those kids who are burning their bogus “Obamacare draft cards”: You aren’t sticking it to The Man.
The Lobbyist Man is sticking it to you.
I read an interesting article this morning about how Penn State is going to start penalizing employees who get health insurance through the university but don’t participate in wellness screenings—to the tune of about $100 per month.
Like many other companies, they are asking those employees to go through some rather routine tests in order to assess their health. This practice has been going on for a while now. We had similar things at the lab, and at Ken’s previous employer, those who did the screenings and made some minor improvements in exercise and diet got incentives like gift cards or a couple of hundred dollars off of their health insurance costs.
This seems like a minor thing to me, but there is one prof at Penn State who is protesting this and saying that it violates his freedom and blah di fucking blah. I hate to break it to you, Professor, but you sound like a Grade A Asshole. I’m sure I’m not the only one you’ve heard this from, though.
First, your privacy isn’t being violated. These screenings are conducted through a private company, and your results are not released to the employer. Just like any other health care information, your results are protected under HIPAA.
Second, if you are purchasing your health care through your employer, they have the right to get you to submit to basic screening. They are subsidizing your insurance, and they do have the right to try to get the best return on their investment in you. If you strongly object to such scrutiny, you can buy your health insurance elsewhere. Perhaps through the upcoming exchanges via the Affordable Care Act?
The reality is that health insurance costs employers big bucks; that is especially true in the healthcare field. I had a couple of jobs where I was paying for my insurance for just myself, and my share was less than ten dollars a month. Things have really gone up since then, and I think it is fair and reasonable for an employer to ask their employees to work on overall health and wellbeing, as well as work on better choices when it comes to exercise and diet. No one is forcing people to do these things, but incentives definitely help. Screenings also help...if someone sees that their blood sugar is seriously high, it might prompt them to make an appointment with their doctor, for example.
To me, it is a win-win situation: the employer has to pay less for insurance, and the employee might see that he or she has some health issues they need to work on in order to get healthier. I can honestly say that the incentives through Ken’s former employer got me to start working out regularly, and once it became a habit, I don’t see myself ever giving it up. If places are shifting to penalties rather than incentives, I’m not sure I see the problem with that.
What do you think? Is this a reasonable request from an employer, or is it a violation of an individual’s privacy?
