Letter: People with pre-existing conditions should be allowed into Medicare

Editor,

Ask your Congressman to not penalize Americans who have pre-existing medical conditions. The idea floating around now in Congress that insurance companies will be able to charge higher amounts to Americans who are sick is a bad idea. This is an idea from the medical insurance lobbyists who continue to buy Congress. They hand out millions of dollars in money to the campaign coffers of our politicians. The Congresspeople are supposed to be representing you and your district but they often get bought out when they arrive on Capitol Hill.

Millions of Americans will be hurt. Across the country people are battling cancer, diabetes, heart conditions and more. They are already stretched to the maximum financially. They cannot afford to be gouged with a premium they cannot afford even now. A higher rate simply means they can’t afford health insurance.

I haven’t supported Obamacare, but I did support his idea of medical insurance for all people with pre-existing conditions.

Everybody in some way has a pre-existing condition, it just hasn’t showed up on the radar yet. Everyone will cost their insurance company a lot of money if they live long enough.

Congress must give people with pre-existing conditions the option to buy into Medicare. Most people are willing to try to pay for medical insurance but coming up with $2,500 a month is tough for a family to do. Families with sickness will try to scrape up every dime they can to pay for insurance, but there is a limit to what any one human being can do.

Giving sick people a chance to pay a reasonable premium into Medicare will afford them a fighting chance against their sickness. So many medical insurance plans today limit their members to certain hospitals, towns and states. Sick people must have the freedom to seek help across state lines. No one wants to be locked into using the local county seat hospital that is ten years behind the times.

Congress must make medical insurance more affordable by allowing companies to sell across state lines. We have to establish a plan to partner with Canadian pharmacies. Americans need a list of approved Canadian pharmacies that we can trade with online with — of course — approved doctor prescriptions that are all legitimate and approved by America and Canada.

The insurance companies obviously only want to enroll people who are healthy. They want to get many, many years of large premiums out of people hoping they never file a large medical claim. Of course, nobody wants to get sick and file a claim.

However, since insurance companies do not want to enroll people who are already sick, we shouldn’t put this pressure on sick people to try to be in places where they are not really wanted. Thus, let them pay for Medicare and pursue getting well.

Americans are filing bankruptcy every day because of gigantic medical bills that have engulfed their lives. They don’t need the added stress of battling with a big corporate insurance company that doesn’t want them and penalizes them with huge premiums.

Dr. Glenn Mollette