Our insurance situation was a mess last fall. I’d lost my job in September, and I was the one who carried the insurance. By February, my husband had another job with insurance, but not before I walked around in fear for months that something would happen. Our health issues aren’t nearly as severe as your family’s, but with an asthmatic son, one attack leading to hospitalization could have wiped us out. I could have COBRA’ed, but this was before the government was helping out with COBRA and the costs would have been astronomical for us. The only up side would have been staying with the same insurance company and not worrying whether the asthma would have been a pre-existing condition. No kidding: I’ve read stories about kids being rejected for coverage for excessive ear infections. We definitely fall into that category.

I think the solution is going to have to be “all of the above.” I think the government does have a role but I’m not ready to blow up the existing structure. Yes, I’m concerned about the costs. But I’m also concerned about the costs of doing nothing, both in financial and human terms.

I also believe that prescription reform has to be part of the mix, too. Going back to the asthma, it’s a perfectly manageable condition IF you can afford to manage it. When we were without insurance, I was paying $300 a month for those medications alone. We could afford it, plus I knew it was a short-term thing. What about families who can’t afford it, though? They, and we as a society if they wind up in the emergency room as charity care, ultimately pay anyway, and pay a lot more. Meanwhile, drug companies thumb their noses left and right at legislation enacted decades ago and designed to get affordable generics to the market more quickly.