My Family's Health Coverage

For my family, it seems that we're more fortunate in health care, due to our economic misfortune. We are currently covered by two different HMO's: HIP and United Choice, as well as Medicare. We do not have to pay for either on, and for the most part our medical needs are covered. However, there are some restrictions, being that each company has their own network and does not cover every single prescribed medicine. When my family meets that restriction, we just cope with it by choosing the alternative, whether it be going to another doctor or having the doctor prescribe a similar medicine, that is covered by our insurance. Going to the doctor has never been much of an issue, and neither has receiving medical help in the emergency room, for me at least. A few years ago, I had an allergic reaction and went to the Downtown hospital. I did not have to wait that long to receive medical attention; they just took a glance at my card and saw that it was something they accepted and got straight to the treatment (but then again, this was 3 o'clock in the morning and no one else was there waiting). Needless to say, our family has never been reluctant to go to the doctor or hospital because of an economical issue, which would make my family the counterexample of Michael Moore's idea of health care in America, in that perspective. But my family has been victims of its denial. My mom once had two surgeries within a week, and her insurance agreed to cover it. But they thought it was a mistake that there were two surgeries within a week, and decided to only pay for one of them, leaving the second one unpaid. They would not pay for the other surgery, and so the hospital kept sending us the bill, but eventually we straightened it out and we ended up paying nothing. After watching a portion of SiCKO and looking back at this scenario, I can definitely see how the insurance company are trying to find cracks to slip through, and trying to avoid every possible payment.

Over break, I was talking to my friends the things that I learned from SiCKO, about the health care system in Great Britain and France, and how the people not only do not have to pay for going to the doctor, but they get paid for their transportation. And one of my friends said that his doctor, Charles B. Wang does that as well. He told me that every time he goes to the doctor, they would give both him and his mom a $4 dollar Metrocard each. Hearing this and thinking back to some of the other aspects of America, it made me realize that America is not a completely corrupt country. There are definitely systems in it that are not practiced enough, but need to be focused and expanded on to allow for the country to improve.