OK, life is unfair. Today it just got a little less fair. But in my favor!
This week I became a Federal Employee. I took a position at the Phoenix VA Med Center.
I was invited to apply for the Federal Employees Healthcare Benefits Plan (FEHBP). This means I have wonderful health insurance benefits, no hassles for pre-existing conditions, and at a great price.
The price is great not because the rates are so great, but because the federal Government pays 72% of my premiums! Amazing!
What that really means to all the working un-insured is that part of your tax dollars are going into my pocket to pay for health insurance for my family. I just want to say, “Thanks.”
It also means that when someone who is uninsured goes to the ER for care and part of that cost is “shifted” to insured patients, that part of that shifted expense will go through my policy – the one you are paying for.
This means that every tax-paying union worker with health insurance, every self employed worker and every business owner with or without health insurance is paying for my health insurance and indirectly for all the uninsured ER-provided healthcare in America.
The truly cost effective thing to do in this situation is, of course, to have universal healthcare. See some of the reasons that universal healthcare will lower total healthcare costs at www.chroniccrisis.com. Please take a look.
