Medical debt is on the rise and employees (yup, even those of you with jobs) can’t cover your costs. At least according to a recent study by the Kaiser Foundation and the Center for Studying Health System Change. If this is you, you didn’t need the study to confirm this — or even to say it’s happening.
But the truth of the matter is that these studies will affect policy. And, hopefully (I know — I’m a Polyanna deep down) this will affect your ability to get the healthcare you need without mounting debt.
I just got this video of the young woman that I mentioned recently who is struggling to get back into work and not lose her MASS Health benefits or SSDI. She volunteers for MitoAction and they held a legislative breakfast for the MA legislature last spring. Watch this to hear what she says about the situation.
In my next post, I intend to write about the new ADA legislation. Anyone have any specific knowledge of this or sites that do a particularly good job explaining it?
I just published an article in Literary Mama’s section, Chronic Mama, called Work Matters. It’s a different take on this issue for me. Check it out!
Warmly
Rosalind aka cicoach
Christina Gombar says
A New York Times article Sept. 12 cites Senator Tom Harkin sponsoring the bill — I’d start with his web site.
Also a spokesperson from the American Association of People with Disabilities — they are in D.C. and have a comprehensive web site.
Maureen Hayes says
I can totally relate to the young girl who is afraid to work and lose her benefits. The system is beyond broken, it encourages us to not try because we have so much to lose if we can’t make it, especially our health insurance and prescription coverage. I pray we will find help in the next administration, but frankly neither party is impressing me at this point. I think the two party system has caused a lot of the trouble, everyone wants the credit and no one is doing anything. They are so afraid the other party might look good, they can’t see the good a particular piece of legislation might do for the people. It’s sad.
Thanks for another great post!
Maureen
http://Beingchronicallyillisapill.blogspot.com
Rosalind says
Thank you for that information -both of you! I’ll use it I promise.
Amy says
I have a unique view of chronic illness, the workplace, disability, and wellness programs. Wellness programs are sold like any other commodity, by promising the moon and then putting a whole bunch of fine print in the contract that admits you’re not even going to get the closest cloud, let alone the moon.
On top of that, even health care professionals don’t always believe a given chronic condition is not the fault of the person who has it. Many believe most CI is in the person’s head and if they’d just think right, they’d be fine. Others believe the person did something to cause the problem.
Wellness programs are based on the premise that anyone who has a chronic condition probably did something to cause it somewhere along the line. They lived near power lines or toxic waste dumps or areas where there was excessive radiation and they should have moved or never lived in those areas in the first place. They lived in the fast lane or the slow lane and made bad health choices. This is courtesy of the theory of karma – bad karma is something you get from being a bad person, and the reason people get sick is bad karma, therefore you are sick because you are a bad person. not because you have something that can’t be prevented or cured, only dealt with and lived with. Sure, bad choices cause a lot of problems, but they don’t cause all of them.
Whether we want to admit it or not, chronic illness costs money. Either you’re going to pay out benefits, or you’re going to pay out taxes for disability payments. Corporate taxes fund most of the money that goes to finance disability. The more people on disability, the higher everyone’s taxes will be – especially corporate taxes.
Which brings me to my final observation: overwork as a cause of CI and overall bad health. Long hours predispose to bad eating habits, lack of exercise, schmoozing and boozing, stress that increases stress hormones, difficulty relaxing enough for quality sleep, etc. Everyone knows that type of lifestyle leads to a host of preventable illnesses. And that it makes non-preventable ones worse. One person, one job, balanced life = decreased chronic illness payouts regardless of cause.
As for the lack of insurance, I have a cure no one thinks about. Move the tax credits away from exhorbitant CEO salaries and put it toward providing health benefits to all workers in the company – and deny any tax break if those benefits are NOT offered. Have employees contribute on a sliding scale related to how many hours they work at the company, charging them more if they don’t fulfill their obligations. The mass buying power of hundreds of employers providing health insurance would probably lower the cost to everyone, and insure everyone without the dreadful spectre of HMOs and universal (rationed, trust me) healthcare.