I hate the political election season, and I love it. I love that we have the opportunity to participate in the process, and I try to do so, even though there’s rising frustration within me over the too long campaigns that focus on everything but what needs to be done.
The latest campaign ad by Hillary Clinton prompted me to dig. According to the ad, the millions of people uninsured are invisible to the current administration. I’m sure it seems that way to those who are uninsured.  What about the millions of uninsured during the eight years her husband had a crack at the problem? Let’s look at some facts:
In 1998, the census bureau reported that the percentage of uninsured Americans reached an all time high of 16.3%. That was six years into his administration. The most recent reports are that the percent of uninsured is at 15.61%. Those who oppose the current administration like to refer to the numbers, as they are higher. So is our population. I prefer to look at the percent of population.
Please understand that I have apathy for the uninsured. My family carried catastrophic health insurance (covering only major illnesses, and that only at 50% of hospitalization charges) for most of the time my daughters were young. We didn’t rush them to the doctor’s office for every sniffle. We learned how to monitor and medicate them with home remedies and over-the-counter. There were things we gave up during that time. They didn’t participate in sports at their schools - how could you pay for the inevitable broken leg or arm? But I’d say they had decent childhoods.
We always found a doctor who was willing to work with us by giving us samples of medicines, allowing us to pay for visits on a plan, etc. I’m not saying it was easy, and we were blessed with overall healthy children.
There’s a great deal of talk about universal health care, with news reports always comparing our health care to that of France. What they fail to mention, while supporting France, is the difficulty the country has in finding doctors, the wait times for special procedures, the 50% or higher taxes, and that France’s number one employer is the federal government.
I hope we can find a solution that will cover the poor, make things more affordable for all, and most certainly help the children, but I’m not betting on Hillary making it any better than she did the 8 years she and her husband had the chance to do something about it, but failed.
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