Enough Talk About Deficits, Will I be able to Afford the Premium?

Health Care Reform has become a debate politicized well beyond, in your administrators view, the overriding objectives of

• health care for all and
• the sustainability of the system

The CBO has prepared estimates of the costs to the nation of health care reform under various congressional proposals, and has even estimated the further savings that can be achieved by including provisions such as liability reform into these proposals.

But there seems to be considerably less consideration paid to the affordability of premium. This is despite the fact that the ranks of the uninsured are populated by people simply unable to afford insurance. A mandate alone will not make the premium any less of an individual hardship.

Even if premium (and the proposed subsidy) is 'affordable', there is concern that pending legislation offers insufficient protection against the high payments required to meet deductibles, co-payments, and other out-of-pocket charges.

There is concern that some families would have to strain to pay their premiums and would probably have to cut back on such items as clothing, various household expenses, meals eaten out, and other activities. Additionally, their plight could worsen in coming years as premium would rise faster than wages.

It would be shameful that if due to poor planning and poor politics the under-insured became the under-clothed and the under-nourished as well.