I sincerely hope so.
President Obama may make health care a theme of the big prime-time speech he’s making next Tuesday about the major challenges facing this country, Obama aides confirm to me.
This could be a big deal, particularly if Obama uses the high-visibility speech (which will be made before Congress) to press the case that health care reform is essential to righting our economy.
The news comes amid other signs that Obama is moving on health care. Today’s New York Timesreports that Kathleen Sebelius has emerged as the front-runner for the post of Health and Human Services secretary, a choice that would cheer reform advocates.
It’s not yet clear how central health care would be to Obama’s speech, but if it’s a major component of Obama’s message, it could signal a renewed determination to prioritize reform.
I have always thought that fixing healthcare is one of the major keys to fixing our economy. And, let’s face it, healthcare/insurance in this country is definitely broken. It’s expensive, unresponsive, and more focused on denying claims than providing good-faith service.
How many of us have struggled to have a claim paid? How many of us have submitted a claim only to be told that it’s not, or it’s no longer, covered – and I’m not talking about some over the top procedure, unless you consider a child’s yearly check-up excessive.
It seems to me that the first course of action for Health Insurance companies is to deny. That also appears to be their second and third choice as well. And when they do pay there’s nothing to stop them from changing their mind. RSmitty, from Delaware Politics, is living this nightmare.
From the “When it rains…” file. Today, just a smidgen under six-months-to-the-day of receiving settlement, we received a subrogation request from my wife’s old health insurance to recover over $1200 worth of claims from the accident they paid for the first handful of hours…due to the settlement we received…you know, the one that didn’t cover total costs, after the fees, etc were worked in. Oh yeah, this is good times here
Read the entire post. One accident changed Smitty’s life. And it can happen to all of us, because the truth is… no one knows how good or bad their Health Insurance is until they need to use it.
So I hope Obama does put Healthcare front and center in his speech next week. The country is more than receptive.
Oh, and those of you tempted to regale us with horror stories from France and Canada. Save your breath, because for every one of your Nationalized Healthcare horror stories I’ll raise you two American privatized health insurance nightmares. I’ll start the ball rolling here, here and here.