Don’t give up
I went to a meeting of the NC Health Access Coalition this morning, and the message was that we not give up on getting meaningful reform, even though the insurance companies’ stocks shot up when Max Baucus announced his Senate committee’s plan last week.
In my mind, if the insurance companies are happy, it’s reason to worry.
There are still some in the coalition who want single-payer or bust; others are content to go with the Baucus plan and hope for more later.
I’m in the middle on that. Without really serious reform that makes the insurance companies and other parts of the medical-industrial complex cringe, we won’t be any better off.
As it is, reform is proposed to take four years. In that time, 180,000 people will die.
In the two hours we talked today, 10 people died because they didn’t have insurance. And we don’t even know how many are dying because insurance companies deny one of every five claims submitted to them.
I’m in a hurry because people are dying at a rate that should infuriate every American while insurance companies’ stocks rise on Wall Street.
I want the best I can get right now, but I also don’t want something that saves only a few hundred lives a year. We can do better than that and we need to do it now.
Patient Pals & Family Friends
Life o' Mike has a new peer support program for people newly diagnosed with chronic or serious illness or with a new disability and their caregivers.
Patient Pals are people who have experience with various illnesses and disabilities, who can help someone newly diagnosed or with a new disability work through the fear, frustration, confusion and grief often experienced in the first few months.
Family Friends are there to help caregivers and other family members grow into their new role.
People with new illness or disability fare better when they have a role model -- someone who can help them negotiate their new path in life.
We need volunteers, who are asked to donate a minimum of one hour a week. Training is free and includes information on active listening, ways to help and when to know more help is needed.
And of course, we need funding.
To learn more, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712 or e-mail lifeomike@gmail.com.
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