Congrats Daanoo- I am glad you are around 35 years later to share your story
and life trials as a quad.
Wishing you many healthy years to come!
As far as the health care bill/ issue; your guess is as good as mine, time will
tell. I did contact President Obama, VP Joe Biden, the governor of Iowa Chet
Culver, Iowa Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley and others, in regards to
my concerns on ("we" as the disabled community) how we may be affected.
I received a letter from Chet Culver, and email from Tom Harkin.
I will paste the email I received from Tom Harkin below.
Tim c5-c6, coming up on 21 yrs. post
http://www.whoopiekat.com/crockscrib/index.htm
WhoopieKat.com
Dear Tim:
Thank you for taking the time to contact my office regarding issues facing the
Congress. I hope you will forgive this delay in my responding to your concerns.
I appreciate you taking the time to express your interest in health care
reform. I am resolutely committed to enacting comprehensive health reform
legislation this year, because I believe our current health care system fails
too many people, and is simply unsustainable. I have always believed that
access to quality, affordable health care should be a right, not a privilege.
It should be a right because people’s lives, their security, and their ability
to contribute to society are all undermined if they are not healthy. I also
believe that access to health care coverage saves taxpayers money in the long
run. Bear in mind that U.S. taxpayers spend billions of dollars annually due to
overuse of emergency rooms, treatment of chronic conditions and treatment of
the uninsured.
In the United States, we now spend a staggering $2 trillion annually, or 16.5
percent of our Gross Domestic Product, on health care. Without reform, over the
next 10 years, America will spend more than $33 trillion on health care. Yet
the World Health Organization ranks U.S. health care only 37th among 191 member
nations, on par with Serbia. We spend twice as much per capita on health care
as European countries, but we are twice as sick with chronic disease.
In spite of all this spending, nearly 50 million Americans are uninsured,
including nearly 300,000 in Iowa. An even higher number of individuals go
without insurance for at least part of the year, putting them at risk should an
illness strike when they lack coverage. Approximately 87 million people - one
in three Americans - went without health insurance for some period during 2007
and 2008, including nearly 700,000 Iowans.
And even those who have insurance can find themselves financially strapped
because of medical bills. Due to coverage limitations or sky-high deductibles,
health insurance can be woefully inadequate for their medical needs. A recent
study of bankruptcy filings found that 62% of all bankruptcies were related to
medical debt, and a majority of those who filed for bankruptcy because of
medical debts actually had insurance. These are just a few of the reasons why I
feel so strongly that health reform legislation must be signed in to law this
year.
As the Senate moves forward with legislation, there are a number of principles
that will guide my work. First, I believe that we should build on what works.
Any individual who is satisfied with their existing coverage will be able to
keep it. But at the same time, we must make health insurance work for everyone,
not just the healthy and the wealthy. We must extend coverage to all, and we
must make sure that insurance plans cover the basic medical needs, so people
with insurance are no longer left medically or financially vulnerable. We have
to bar insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, and
make sure the premiums charged are fair.
To help accomplish these goals, I strongly support including a public health
insurance option. Because it lacks a profit motive and because it would
generally have lower administrative costs, a public option can help keep
spiraling health costs down. It will ensure competition, which will keep the
private plans lean and honest. And it will create a benchmark - a yardstick -
that consumers can use to measure whether private plans are offering reasonable
rates.
It is important to note that no one would be required to enroll in the public
option. I strongly believe our final health bill must provide choices for
individuals. That is why any final bill will ensure that, if you like the
insurance you currently have, you can keep it. But if the idea of enrolling in
a plan that is administered by the government, on a non-profit basis, providing
the same essential services that every private plan is required to provide, is
appealing to you, you should have that option.
We must also improve the quality of care we provide, and expand the use of
information technology, which will not only help doctors provide better care,
but will help to reduce costs. We must strengthen the health care workforce, so
that we will have the doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, physician
assistants, pharmacists, oral health and mental health providers, public health
professionals, and integrative health practitioners, to provide care throughout
our cities, our small towns, and our rural areas.
Of course, a key way to improve the quality of care received is to tie
reimbursement to quality. We have an opportunity to modernize our outdated
payment systems. Currently, our payment systems encourage the delivery of more
care, rather than better care. That is why Iowa’s Medicare rates remain among
the lowest in the country: in Iowa, we practice quality care, rather than
high-volume care. Indeed, we have numerous studies demonstrating Iowa delivers
some of the highest quality of care but gets reimbursed lower than most states
in the country. Health reform provides an opportunity to change how we
reimburse in Medicare, in a way that will reward quality care.
And finally, we must have a renewed emphasis on wellness and disease
prevention. As I have said many times, currently in the U.S., we don’t have a
health care system, we have a sick care system. If you’re sick, you get care.
But we spend peanuts on prevention. The system and all of the incentives are
focused on pills, surgery, hospitalization, and disability.
Currently in the United States, 95 percent of every health care dollar is spent
on treating illnesses and conditions after they occur. Right now, approximately
75 percent of health care costs are accounted for by heart disease, diabetes,
prostate cancer, breast cancer, and obesity. What these five diseases and
conditions have in common is that they are largely preventable and even
reversible by changes in nutrition, physical activity, and lifestyle.
The good news is that, by reforming the system and focusing on fighting and
preventing chronic disease, we have a huge opportunity. We can not only save
countless billions of dollars; we can also dramatically improve the health of
the American people.
I know that the process of enacting comprehensive health reform will not be
easy, and there are a number of challenges that lie ahead. One challenge will
be how to pay for the legislation. Both the Senate and the House of
Representatives are committed to passing legislation that is fully paid for and
does not add to the federal budget deficit. There are a number of different
options that are under consideration, and no final decisions have been made. As
we continue to evaluate various funding proposals, I am paying close attention
to the feedback I am receiving from Iowans.
But, what we can’t afford to do is allow the challenges of paying for the
legislation prevent us from acting. Indeed, if we don’t act now, the cost of
health care will continue to hurt families, businesses, and our economy as a
whole. Health care costs are currently rising at twice the rate of inflation.
The more than $2 trillion we currently spend on health care is expected to
reach over $4 trillion by 2017. The cost of a family health insurance policy is
currently 17% of median income, and is predicted to be 35-40% in ten years.
Without reform, over the next 10 years, America will spend more than $33
trillion on health care. So, not acting is not an option.
Again, I apologize for my delay in getting back to you. Please keep in touch
and continue to keep me informed of your views and concerns.
Sincerely,
Tom Harkin
United States Senator
--- On Mon, 7/27/09, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: [QUAD-L] 35 year anniversary
To: [email protected]
Date: Monday, July 27, 2009, 9:27 AM
I can't believe I made it to my 35 th year anniversary. My parents were told
after each hospitalization I might not make. It seems I was strong enough to
defeat their predictions even though I appeared to be weak at the time. I was
given a tracheostomy after each of my surgeries, but it was removed before I
came home. I had so many long hospitalizations trying to get off the
ventilator and over pneumonia. I was given another tracheostomy during a
pneumonia in 88, which they changed to a trach button before I left the
hospital. It has kept me out of the hospital except for a UTI that got into
my bloodstream causing a coma for 13 days. I had a pneumonia last year. The
trach buttonallows me to get over the bronchitis at home. I didn't want it,
but it turned out to be a good thing for me and not very noticeable. It is
mostly capped, unless I have a lot allergies or congestion and might need
suctioned as needed. It is easy for
anyone to learn how to do. I am quite healthy almost all of the time. I love
to enjoy life going to concerts, which is one of my favorite things to do.
Sorry this has been such a lengthy post.
I have forgotten, who has the longest survivor that we know of. They had saved
that information, but have lost when this computer was reformatted and my
brother thought he had saved.
I haven't got a lot of posts this summer, and I'm sure everybody is busy. Just
wanted to say I miss those that I have not heard from.
What does everybody think about the new health-care bill as nobody has
mentioned. I know that is a political issue, but very important for our
ability to survive and get what we need. There has been talk about taking away
from Medicare. Medicaid is also having problems with reduced state revenue for
problems. Kansas has mentioned there will be some reductions with populations
such as ours, but I don't know where it will be targeted. PCA hourly pay is
very low and hard to find people that want to work with no increases at all for
a number of years.
Just wondering!
.
