Cousin in Australia r/e Healthcare: "I'm saddened to hear about your situation."

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

This is another email from my cousin in Australia. She is writing in response to my email about my daughter's insurance problem. Background, my 17 yr old daughter, in first year of college, was denied health insurance because she has ADHD. I am trying to find a solution. It shocked my cousin when before I told her about the US's lack of public health care. Here's my cousin's response to me in today's in-box:

"I'm saddened to hear about your situation. ..I have seen president Obama on TV discussing the need to shake-up and reform health care in America, but it's a huge task, it should never have been allowed to get like that in the first place. How did it ever get that bad?

Hopefully things will improve for both yourself and the wider community. Health care is a basic right and need and it is a marker of social welfare and quality of life in a country."

# # #

My email that she is replying to:

To:
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 9:02 AM
Subject: insurance denied to my 17 yr old daughter


> This is my story.
>
> INSURANCE DENIED. I applied to State Farm for a college student health insurance policy for my 17 yr old daughter.
> They refused to give her a policy because she has ADHD.
> The policy wouldn't have included prescription coverage so why refuse her?
> She is very healthy and runs several miles a day. I am shopping around for a policy but it is a nightmare.
> She may have to join a high risk pool.
>
> Myself, I haven't had health insurance since 2003,. but my mother has medicare and has had it for about 20 years.
> My brother has insurance, with a $10,000 deductible. They likely will drop him if they can, since he has filed a claim
> for his heart stint.
>
>
>
> Regards;

[PDJane]

1. I am sorry for this mess too........

And I don't understand and likely never will understand the barbarity of leaving children, young people and pre-medicare adults to live or die without insurance. I don't understand pregnancy as a pre-existing condition nor being able to fire a mother because she needs to express breast milk. It's all just beyond my ideas of what a civilized society should be and do.

[NJCher]

2. pass this along

Health care is a basic right and need and it is a marker of social welfare and quality of life in a country."

Maybe you should tell her we're not a "country," we're an economy. And in an "economy" the only concern is that the market be free, not the humans.

"Social" and "welfare" are terms that have been successfully denigrated by republicans over the past 30 years. Not only have the words been destroyed, but the concept has been, too.

Your sister is quite fortunate that she lives in a real country and does not reside in an "economy."

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience with State Farm. I read about in on the other thread.

In my experience, SF is one of the poorer companies with which to do business, but under the present system, they are almost all in that category.

Cher