Recently my husband and I lost our insurance due to the fact that he retired early.It was bad enough when he was still with the union and was paying out almost $2,000.00 every month to keep the coverage , but to try to do that while on a pension is totally ridiculous not to mention outrageous . $24,000.00 a year for health insurance is terrible and there is no reason for it , yet it’s going on all over , and I can only hope that the next President can fix this mess for all American’s and that we can finally say we have a health care plan that works .
I can’t imagine what Senior Citizens or those whose jobs don’t offer any insurance of any kind do . I also wonder what Senior Citizens who are living just on Social Security do since I already know how rough things can get myself .
My husband was lucky to have worked where he received pensions for retirement , but that alone too is not enough to cover the cost of my medical bills nor my prescriptions every month .Even if he continued to pay for the insurance that would only leave around $600.00 a month for all other expenses including the deductibles on my medicines . There is just no way today for anyone to have the coverage they need , the care and medications they need , and to be able to pay their bills and put food on the table , and don’t even think about entertainment or going out to eat , it isn’t possible .
Because my medications are so costly I have tried every avenue that I have come across to see if I could get some kind of medical insurance to cover the doctor bills and the prescriptions , but either I have been told I can not be covered or the cost is so high we wouldn’t have anything left after paying the premium every month . I even went to the State to see if they could help but their answer is that we are just above the poverty level , and in order for them to help we would have to have $11,000.00 in medical expenses that we have to pay for every 6 months and they would then pickup the rest . That’s $22,000.00, and that would leave us around $6,000.00 to live on for the whole year “minus” the deductibles . That is just ridiculous . I understand now why the elderly have to choose between their medication and food every month , but why should they have to ? They worked hard all of their life , they deserve to be treated with respect and not have to make these choices anymore . But what also gets me mad is the fact that immigrants get better treatment then our own citizens . This whole system is screwed up and is punishing the people that have done the most for their families and for their country . We need to fix it before they bring back the poorhouses that we all read about in books.
If you were to put yourself in my place or another senior citizens , you would be shocked , just one of my medications runs $700.00 for a 30 day supply , now multiply that by 4 and that would be what I need to pay for them every month . Now , Walmart and Target have a great idea making prescriptions more affordable for people , BUT the ones that are offered are the ones that are not very expensive in the first place, so you aren’t saving a whole lot anyway . Sure it helps , but if they added more drugs to the lists for the $4.00 then they would really be doing us a great big favor . This would drum up more business for them as well .
I am lucky I have learned over the years to go directly to the drug manufactures for help . Most will help in some way , whether its paying for your medication for a full year or giving you a refund on your out of pocket expenses . I also have a wonderful doctor who gives me samples to help cut the costs not to mention to make sure that I have what I need to get me through , but not all doctors hand any samples out and why not is unforgivable since the drug companies are the ones who supply them for free .
It’s just time that this country fixed the whole system before it becomes even worse ,and start regulating the drug companies , and the insurance companies for all they have done to screw things up in the last 7 years , and to repay the people for overcharging them.
In other words , it is time that we the American People took back our country .