Individuals and families must have access to essential clinical preventive services such as cancer screenings and smoking cessation programs, and the Obama health plan will require coverage of such services in all federally supported health plans, including Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP and the new public plan.

This quote was at the end of the diary in my first draft but accidently dropped during my struggles with Mac Safari challenges. I am sorry for the omission.

Your story is the epitome of the tragedy that has occurred in the country over the last 7 years.

I am so sorry – keep fighting on. Please post this story everywhere. It needs and must be heard. I would suggest you might want to send it to Hillary’s campaign.

Thanks for sharing and God bless!

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/My_Right_Breast_Healthcare_and_the_Presidential_Primary

Now, I can give her full benefit of the doubt that this is a pragmatist speaking (and I do believe Hil to be pragmatist at heart). And at least she’s upfront and open about this, contrasted with Obama who takes advice and help from lobbyists and money from their spouses.

But that’s why I’m agnostic. I just can’t jump on either of their bandwagons. I’m a systemic change gal choosing between two incremental change candidates.

I’ll vote for whoever the Dem nom is in Nov, and if it’s Hil I’ll really start writing about her health care policy (b/c whoever ends up being President we’ll still have to push to get universal health care). But in my heart I just can’t sign onto someone who understands the system is broken but who will pragmatically work inside of it.

Just not who I am

Finally — luckily — he found out about a state-run counseling service that gave him the real scoop. It turns out that those insurance companies HAVE to cover him, and for far less than he thought. And he found a decent prescription plan.

Still, all the extra policies cost him about $300+ per month, not counting the prescription drug deductibles and co-pays. I don’t know if he’s hit that donuthole yet — must ask him.

ALSO: It is imperative to buy the best possible supplemental plan. Let’s see. I think that is the Part C part of it. Otherwise, if you end up in the hospital, plain old Medicare will NOT pay for the first $1,000 — which means that the hospital would require YOU to come up with the $1,000 before they’d admit you.

All of the plans vary by state in price because — a friend in California who’s disabled told me — her AARP plan differs from the one my friend got here in Washington state (was telling her what he ended up paying, and it’s about $70-80, I forget, less than what she was paying).

The only retirees I know of who have great insurance are the military retirees — they don’t have to pay for all of those supplemental policies.

it is so frustrating at times to deal with the insurance companies. You shouldn’t have to deal with it. And I HOPE you are getting adequate pain relief — god knows you deserve whatever you want.

“Hillary’s greatest virtue is that she doesn’t feel the need to be loved. Her husband lacked that virtue. Obama clearly lacks it. But, that’s what it’s going to take because fixing this mess is going to be ugly. An economist, protege of Micheal Porter, told me in 2004 that we were entering a new age in america, the end of the middle class, a permanent divide between the haves and the have nots. And, if you ended up in the have not category, you were never, ever going to get into the haves. That’s the heart of Hillary’s campaign. She see’s that and aims to fix it. I don’t think Obama see’s it or even knows how to fix it. This is like the DMR endorsement. This time, both in foreign and domestic policy, requires an FDR not a JFK. “

Many of the things I worry about could probably be helped with preventive care but with no inurance I have all I can do to hold onto my home and to keep it relatively warm in the winter.

You are trying to address a problem and have come to some conclusions based on what you have found. Expect to get hammered for doing something that should be basic and ordinary. Common sense and common courtesy are in short supply amongst the keyboard warriors.

As for me, living in Wisconsin and with much the same problems, thank you for an insightful post.

Thank you so much for sharing your story. I am praying for you. God Bless.