Healthcare, Health Insurance, Vitamins, Nutrition

Health insurance companies in Virginia are not required by law to cover medical care for children with autism. Virginia families have fought hard for a state bill which would require the children to be covered, but recently the bill was killed in the state Senate.

State Senators in Virginia were unable to reach a compromise, as was reported by the Washington Post. Lobbyists for business groups and health insurance providers argued that the bill would be too costly in this time of economic recession.

One of the lobbyists came forth with an estimated figure of $40 million per year in costs to the state, arguing that it could become the second most expensive mandate in Virginia, and possibly the first.

The bill in its original form the bill included coverage for all autistic children. When no progress was made, a compromise to cap coverage at age 12 was offered, and then another compromise of capping coverage to age 6 was offered, but the bill still failed.

The failure of the Virginia bill brings to light a key issue in the national health care debate. Should children with autism be guaranteed health insurance? Ohio is considering a similar bill, and Florida already has mandated health coverage for autistic children.

When Americans think of people who don’t have health insurance, the first group that comes to our mind is the unemployed. But that is no longer an absolute rule. Many are surprised to learn that having a full time job no longer guarantees health care benefits. Companies are cutting costs wherever they can to stay afloat, and health care is one of the first things to go in their budget slashes. The problem with this is that there is now a growing class of Americans without insurance who work full time, but who make too much money to qualify for Medicaid, and don’t make enough to purchase private coverage.

The cost of doing business is rapidly rising across the country, and smaller businesses are less and less able to provide health benefits to their employees. In 2007, one third of all businesses in the country didn’t offer health coverage to their staff. As a result, the ranks uninsured continue to grow.

There is a lot of talk against a government run health care system. Many call it socialism, and claim that our forefathers never intended our country to be run this way. Truth is, that our forefathers likely had no clue that we would one day be controlled by a very greedy rich few who control our health care system. When honest citizens are dying because they can’t get proper health care, then the system is broken. It is time that the citizens stand up and speak clearly to the politicians.

As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we are among the last to come up with a workable health care plan that would protect all citizens. The reason we have a government is because we have citizens to govern. We need to do a better job of taking care of the people. From 2006 to 2007 about a third of the population under 65 went without health care coverage for a portion of time. That is wrong. While politicians in Washington have the best health care coverage available, paid for by citizens by the way, they vote down coverage for their constituents. Something is wrong with that concept.

Whatever your stance on this issue, you must at least agree that something should be done to help out our fellow Americans. It is time to come together and pay for what works, and eliminate the extras from the budget. If this doesn’t happen, then as a country, we wont survive.