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May 19 , 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels March 30, 2004 The joke of insurance Many of the tens of millions of Americans without health insurance avoid seeking medical help for at least three reasons: 1. As with health insurance premiums, they cannot afford it. Thus they only go when the health trouble is glaring. 2. Scraping by as they do they may be less educated and aware of the value of periodic exams, screening and basic consultation. 3. They understand that if there is a record of medical visits, however minor, this could foreclose their prospect of getting health insurance in the future. I thought this last point was only implicit until I was openly told by an insurance agent that I had to wait a year or two or three and if there were no further problems with my shoulder I might then be able to get coverage. Well my shoulder is fine, but the take-home lesson is basically that I should not have gone to the doctor for a check up in the first place. How many millions of Americans have reasoned thus and now avoid medical advice in an effort to keep health concerns and conditions "under the radar?" Funny mole? Not to worry. Ignore it for another 18 months and maybe you'll be eligible for coverage (assuming you can afford it). Here lies Ms. Coverage Denied. Beloved outcast of the insurance industry Foreclosed on by the trustworthy banks, Ransacked by the compassionate health care providers� Felled by a blemish, But not before being drained of her last dime. Ever notice among the big skyscrapers in the big cities there are the names not only of big banks but also big insurance companies? Ever consider that these fortunes come to them only after the gouging of the drug companies and all the other long limbs and ravenous suckers on the octopus we call the health care system? Welcome to Sickness Inc., a stinking behemoth of a ship captained by greed, fueled by fear, listing on a sea of improvidence: environmental destruction, endless corporate malfeasance, neglectful governance, and cavalier citizenry. Maybe the metaphor goes a bit far. But folks the fact remains: the system is completely messed up. 1. People need to take more responsibility for their own health. More prevention, self-care and self-healing will reduce the need for costly radical interventions. "Self" can include family, community and the environment that sustains us as these surely influence our physical health. 2. People need to overhaul the medical system that is meant to serve them. From the drug and insurance companies down to all the minutemen and minutia, all need to be taken to task, to ante up to bring costs down, (or hand it over and get out of town). Leif Joslyn Talent DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams