I was unmarried when my wife and I conceived. In some states, it would have been easier if we were “domestic partners.” We tried to sign up for the Health Exchange for each of us separately. Needless to say, the plan I used to get for $120/month now costs over $300. I’ll pay less with the subsidy, on paper, but then again my taxes are going to go ahead and cover the difference anyway.
Worse, we were encouraged/forced to sign up for our state exchange. This wasn’t a choice we were given–it was either a state exchange for my wife and the baby or no insurance BECAUSE THE PREMIUMS OFF THE EXCHANGE ARE NOW TWO-THREE TIMES HIGHER than they used to be. So we sign up for Badgercare. Something I could afford three years ago, I now need welfare to buy.
The next thing I know, there’s a child support order out on me. Even after we were married, the state continued to pursue me with this order. It required me to reveal every penny that I spend (from cable to meals) to the state, so I called my county child support collection agent and offer to go ahead and just pay the minimum balance, figuring that since I can pay it, there’s no reason for me to fill out all the paper work and have a judge and essentially the whole bureaucratic world know my business. Here’s what I was told:
“You’re on welfare. Badgercare is welfare, and you’re responsible for paying this back.”
I said, “I want to just pay this back in full. That’s why I’m calling.”
She said, “A judge needs to look over this paperwork before a decision is made.” Period. I was a criminal, a “dead beat dad” until I could prove otherwise.
So now my son is on welfare.
Worse yet is the fact that birth, the most natural thing in the world, is the most expensive single medical procedure most people will experience. In spite of the expense, our doctor needed to do almost nothing but show up to the birth . . . because my wife and I eat right, maintain a health weight, and she practiced natural birth techniques. So painless (relatively, I’m told) and quick was the birth that my wife woke up an hour and a half before our baby was born and the was baby crowning when we got to the hospital. She could have had the baby as soon as we walked in the door. The nurses said they could do it, but they had her hold on for an hour (keeping the baby in when it was ready to come out) while we all waited for the doctor, who showed up looking like she stopped by her makeup table on the way out the door. Nice doctor, but she was completely unnecessary. She got there, set up her table, administered some drugs without my wife’s permission, watched the baby be born, and broke down her table. That’s it. A midwife could have done it, but that’s not covered in the exchange. No pain killers were needed because we decided to show up just in time for the birth to avoid all the medical interventions that create problem births.
How was it so easy? Because we’re healthy and because we spent hours studying how to meditate through the process. The nurses said it was a record easy birth, but it should have been typical. It would be typical, I believe, anyway, if doctors emphasized holistic health in the first place. They don’t, and our forced insurance plans are just paying for the mess that low health literacy and bad food is creating in our culture. What’ we’re doing is subsidizing (in other words, giving corporate welfare to) a toxic food culture that the FDA won’t do anything to stop. Obese? Get insurance. That’s our answer?
I want the following insurance: dental, accident/emergency, holistic, and one private practice visit a year. That seems reasonable enough. If anyone knows where I kind find this, let me know (please).