Speaking of vertigo: up is down and down is up… or so those against single payer argue.

Okay, kiddos, it’s time for a little (read: YUUUUUUUUUGE) rant outta yours truly here.

It’s regarding one particular bit of disinformation that those who are against a single payer healthcare system always whip out as a fear tactic, when the reality of the sitch is that nothing could be further from the actual truth! If one is going to argue against something, one should have one’s facts straight. Yet repug candidates for office always run fear-inducing ads with the LIE I’m about to discuss, when the reality is that our CURRENT health care system, which is TOTALLY controlled by private insurance companies, is the system to which the following LIE-when-said-to-apply-to-single-payer actually applies.

Before I say what it is, I’ll say why I’m ranting about it right at this moment: I just experienced the ACTUAL reality of our CURRENT, private-insurance-controlled, employer-based health care system, and it is one that REALLY “won’t let you choose your own doctors”. YEP: that's the lie they try to scare you with re single payer, when the reality is that, under a true single payer system, YOU CAN GO TO ANY DOCTOR IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, no matter if you change your employer, no matter if you don’t have an employer, no matter if you live in Alaska and want to see someone in Maine: up to YOU. Yet Republicans (mainly, but also others who are against single payer) are constantly saying that “the government won’t let you pick your doctor!” LIE. Or that “the government will make you change doctors from the one you have”. LIE—just another version of the first lie. And not only is it a blatant lie, what is doubly infuriating is, THAT IS THE SITUATION UNDER PRIVATE-INSURANCE-COMPANY-BASED HEALTH CARE!

Case in point that happened to me today: Maybe you saw my very recent Facebook post about my vertigo coming back last Saturday. Well, it is still with me, so I called the fantastic place I went for treatment in 2011, and to which I’ve always felt comforted to think that, if I ever needed a second treatment, I could go back. The insurance I had at the time (in 2011) was a PPO which means that you usually didn’t need a referral for a specialist, but in the case of this place, you did need a referral BY a specialist, saying that you need this particular place/treatment. ANYWAY, so in 2011, I had all that and I was treated. Today, I called the center, to tell them that I was a patient in 2011, my vertigo has flared up, and if I want to come back, do I need a referral like I did last time, as I have new insurance now? Oh, what insurance do you have, they asked. I told them. The response I got was “We can’t accept Blue Cross Blue Shield--they won’t allow us in their network.” Oh NO, I said. It hadn’t even occurred to me that BCBS wouldn’t have this place (a renowned center for balance/vestibular disorders) in their network. “But we can submit it out of network.” No, I said, you can’t: the plan I’m on does NOT have ANY out-of-network benefits. It’s an “EPO”, which means, in a nutshell, NO out-of-network benefits.

So tell me again, repugs-and-other-anti-single-payer-peeps, how a single payer plan is going to mean I can’t choose my doctor. What the bleep do you think we have RIGHT NOW? I’ll tell you: we have private insurance companies and employers dictating who is and isn’t “in network”. Whereas, with single payer, THERE ARE NO NETWORKS.

I’ve been at my employer/job for 19 years, going on 20. We’ve had many different insurance companies and plans in that time. They change insurance companies every few years. We are now back to the insurance company we had in 1999, when I started here. Every time they change, your doctor could be suddenly “out of network”. What if it was my oncologist? The one who is supposed to follow me for 5 years after my ovarian cancer in 2017? She’s in network, thank God, but it just as easily could have been that she isn’t. I was really scared when the company announced we were changing insurance companies this year.

I am OVER our health care system! I’m one of the very lucky ones WITH insurance. Yet I just got told by a provider I need (they are the only place of their kind in this region) that my insurance company “won’t allow us in their network”. So if I hear ONE more repug or anyone else LYING about single payer, saying “the government will choose your doctors!”, when actually, that’s the OPPOSITE of the truth, I may just spontaneously combust. And, if I do, I pray that whatever hospital I’m transported to is in-network.

P.S. The other lie is that single payer is so expensive for both individual Americans and the American economy: Another LIE. Individual Americans would save significant money every year as, though taxes might go up, you would have ZERO insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles or co-insurance. And as for our economy, our CURRENT, private-insurance-based system is totally unsustainable and conflict-of-interest-ridden, whereas a government run, single-payer system is economically sustainable AND covers every single American citizen.

But yeah, just keep spreading lies about it, Republicans and others who are against it. Just keep lying. While meanwhile, Americans with jobs are going bankrupt due to health issues, many Americans aren’t even covered, the insurers have a conflict of interest when it comes to providing care versus making huge profits, and last but not least, our current economically unsustainable insurance-based system is just that: unsustainable, with costs continuing to skyrocket and it is hurting our entire economy.

But just keep lying.