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Just sent the following letter to all three of my congressional representatives (2 in the Senate and 1 in the House, as with everyone in the country - other than D.C. and the territories, of course). Thought I'd share, in case anyone was interested. (Meantime, it turns out that one of my senators has lymphoma. My best wishes to Senator Lautenberg on that battle.)
I've been having a struggle with my body. An overactive immune system has led to a number of disorders. I've been forced to go on indefinite medical leave from school, and have been unable to find gainful employment.
On the news, I hear about proposed rate hikes in other states, such as California and Maine. Yet when I compare the reported rates in those states to the ones here in NJ ( http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcratepage_sp.pdf ), I see ours are already at that level, if not higher. Starting next month, I'll be raising my deductible to $2500/year just to keep my monthly premiums below $1000.
That's with NJ's tight regulations and consumer protections. Many of the proposed reforms I've heard touted (having to do with preexisting conditions, acceptable profit margins, etc.) are already on the books here. I worry that the bill won't do enough.
I also worry when I hear about proposals to allow buying insurance across state lines. If that's enacted, I fear that insurance companies will simply stop offering plans under NJ law (where, among other things, they're forced to use plan designs created by the state).
At the same time, I saw a mention in the NY Times that Gov Christie wants to deregulate health care in NJ, and I'm worried that some vital protections might be stripped away.
With all that, I still face inordinate amounts of red tape. In looking to change my plan, I spent weeks trying to get one simple question answered - If I change my deductible in March, will January and February claims carry over? I got bounced from one department to another, each claiming that they couldn't answer the question, that my call had been misrouted, that the information I needed wasn't available to people working in that department, and on and on. I spent hours and hours on hold, collected at least half a dozen toll-free numbers, and spoke to more representatives than I can count. What little information I did get was often conflicting, sometimes provably false.
The company is set up to make communication as difficult as possible. To make people give up rather than put up with the hassle. The harder it is for us, the less money they have to pay out, the less likely I am to be willing to take the risk of changing my plan, the more money they can keep.
It's just another reason why we need a strong public option. The government may be prone to red tape, but they can't compete with a company actively and deliberately constructing it. I'm very glad to see that both my state senators have signed on to the letter supporting its return.
From the other side of things, I'm worried about our doctors, squeezed between shrinking payouts from their patients' insurance companies and increasing premiums from their own malpractice insurance. It may not be a popular progressive issue, but from where I stand, it's clear that we need tort reform.
We also need protections to ensure that payouts stay reasonable. The legal deck is stacked against doctors, who are forbidden from even discussing rates with each other or anything else that even hints at "unionizing." And yet insurance companies have no trouble handing out "reimbursements" so low they're sometimes at or even below cost.
How did all this happen? Lobbyist dollars and the high cost of campaigns have worked together to give corporations hugely disproportionate influence on lawmaking. That's before taking into account the possible effects of the recent infamous supreme court decision. Corruption - the ability of corporations and special interests to buy influence even in direct contradiction to the will of the people and the public good - is not only legal, it's become institutionalized. Reform is urgently needed if we're to ever see the "government for the people, by the people" that our founders dreamed of.
Finally, filibuster reform. Democrats have huge majorities in both houses, and yet the Republican minority has been able to bring the entire legislative process to a grinding halt through the use of the filibuster. They've already invoked it more than twice as much as any session in our country's history. The filibuster is, as I understand it, designed to be an emergency brake of sorts. To be used only in the event that the majority in the driver's seat makes a major move in a potentially disastrous direction. Yet it's now being seriously abused, invoked over nearly every vote. Abusing the emergency brake needs to come with serious consequences. Our government cannot function this way. The rule needs to be changed, if not outright revoked. Heath reform is only one of many causes that hangs in the balance.
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf to date. Thank you for listening. And thank you for continuing to fight for our health and welfare.
Sincerely,
Paul-Gabriel Wiener
I've been having a struggle with my body. An overactive immune system has led to a number of disorders. I've been forced to go on indefinite medical leave from school, and have been unable to find gainful employment.
On the news, I hear about proposed rate hikes in other states, such as California and Maine. Yet when I compare the reported rates in those states to the ones here in NJ ( http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/ihcseh/ihcratepage_sp.pdf ), I see ours are already at that level, if not higher. Starting next month, I'll be raising my deductible to $2500/year just to keep my monthly premiums below $1000.
That's with NJ's tight regulations and consumer protections. Many of the proposed reforms I've heard touted (having to do with preexisting conditions, acceptable profit margins, etc.) are already on the books here. I worry that the bill won't do enough.
I also worry when I hear about proposals to allow buying insurance across state lines. If that's enacted, I fear that insurance companies will simply stop offering plans under NJ law (where, among other things, they're forced to use plan designs created by the state).
At the same time, I saw a mention in the NY Times that Gov Christie wants to deregulate health care in NJ, and I'm worried that some vital protections might be stripped away.
With all that, I still face inordinate amounts of red tape. In looking to change my plan, I spent weeks trying to get one simple question answered - If I change my deductible in March, will January and February claims carry over? I got bounced from one department to another, each claiming that they couldn't answer the question, that my call had been misrouted, that the information I needed wasn't available to people working in that department, and on and on. I spent hours and hours on hold, collected at least half a dozen toll-free numbers, and spoke to more representatives than I can count. What little information I did get was often conflicting, sometimes provably false.
The company is set up to make communication as difficult as possible. To make people give up rather than put up with the hassle. The harder it is for us, the less money they have to pay out, the less likely I am to be willing to take the risk of changing my plan, the more money they can keep.
It's just another reason why we need a strong public option. The government may be prone to red tape, but they can't compete with a company actively and deliberately constructing it. I'm very glad to see that both my state senators have signed on to the letter supporting its return.
From the other side of things, I'm worried about our doctors, squeezed between shrinking payouts from their patients' insurance companies and increasing premiums from their own malpractice insurance. It may not be a popular progressive issue, but from where I stand, it's clear that we need tort reform.
We also need protections to ensure that payouts stay reasonable. The legal deck is stacked against doctors, who are forbidden from even discussing rates with each other or anything else that even hints at "unionizing." And yet insurance companies have no trouble handing out "reimbursements" so low they're sometimes at or even below cost.
How did all this happen? Lobbyist dollars and the high cost of campaigns have worked together to give corporations hugely disproportionate influence on lawmaking. That's before taking into account the possible effects of the recent infamous supreme court decision. Corruption - the ability of corporations and special interests to buy influence even in direct contradiction to the will of the people and the public good - is not only legal, it's become institutionalized. Reform is urgently needed if we're to ever see the "government for the people, by the people" that our founders dreamed of.
Finally, filibuster reform. Democrats have huge majorities in both houses, and yet the Republican minority has been able to bring the entire legislative process to a grinding halt through the use of the filibuster. They've already invoked it more than twice as much as any session in our country's history. The filibuster is, as I understand it, designed to be an emergency brake of sorts. To be used only in the event that the majority in the driver's seat makes a major move in a potentially disastrous direction. Yet it's now being seriously abused, invoked over nearly every vote. Abusing the emergency brake needs to come with serious consequences. Our government cannot function this way. The rule needs to be changed, if not outright revoked. Heath reform is only one of many causes that hangs in the balance.
Thank you for your efforts on our behalf to date. Thank you for listening. And thank you for continuing to fight for our health and welfare.
Sincerely,
Paul-Gabriel Wiener