George Harris K.C. Star Reader Advisory Panel 2008

In 1998 when I was 48, doctors diagnosed my incurable blood disease. According to then available medical data, my life expectancy was 11 years.

There’s nothing like a terminal illness to focus the mind on medical care.

And on insurance. I traveled to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and Cornell University Medical Center in New York City to meet with experts on my disease, polycythemia vera (PV). Of course, these doctors were “out of network” and my insurance wouldn’t pay them or paid a very reduced amount.

But one of the experts recommended a medication on which he had done research. The medicine worked beautifully for ten years. Insurance covered the expense, but earlier this year the company decided not to pay for the drug because it was not FDA approved for my disease.

Of course, there are no drugs approved by the FDA for PV, a rare disorder thought to be caused in most cases by a genetic mutation. Lucky me, I’m a mutant, and my insurance company didn't like my kind.

So I went looking for another insurance company that might like mutants better. Long story short: After being insured and paying premiums for almost 40 years, I am now uninsurable.

No one will sell me an individual policy, and I’m stuck with the insurance I have, which won’t pay for the treatment that worked for me for ten years. I get no credit for having paid my premiums for 40 years, having only a single year in which my benefits exceeded premiums paid.

This is no way to run the health care system. So you can see why I am, quite personally, interested in health care reform.

As a psychologist, I also see the health care problem from a health care provider's perspective.

Insurance companies are raising co-pays and deductibles to the point that many, probably soon to be most, with insurance really have only major medical coverage.

Over 45 million people have no insurance at all, and the only care they receive is expensive emergency room treatment, the cost of which is added to the hospital bills of those who are insured. And you wonder why your premiums keep going up while coverage is going down.

An estimated 30% of all private insurance premiums are spent on administration. Doctors pay an additional 10% or more for staff to navigate the byzantine claims process, making 40% of your health care costs go for bureaucracy, not medical care.

So, here we are. I’m doing ok and paying for the treatment I can afford that insurance won’t cover. But you’re kidding yourself if you think your insurance company isn’t like mine. As the saying goes, insurance companies sell coverage to people who don’t need it.

Want to get involved in solving this national problem? Here’s some information about a local group that is advocating for health care reform.

Heartland Healthcare for All was formed by medical professionals and medical students at the Kansas University Medical Center. The group seeks to form a coalition with other local groups to support their goal: Single Payer Universal Health Care.

Heartland Healthcare for All will give a presentation of Health Care Reform Options on December 5th at 6 pm at the Southwest Boulevard Family Clinic, 340 Southwest Boulevard (the northeast corner of Southwest & Rainbow boulevards).

Here are links to get information and to get involved in addressing health care reform:

http://healthcareforall.kumc.edu/index.htm

http://healthcareforall.kumc.edu/about/getInvolved.htm

A petition supporting Single Payer National Health Insurance is at:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/HHFA/petition.html

Numerous polls show that single payer is enormously popular.

* In a New York Times/CBS News poll in February 2007, 64% said that the federal government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans.

* In October 2003, 62% of respondents to a Washington Post/ABC News poll said they preferred "a universal health insurance program, in which everybody is covered under a program like Medicare that's run by the government and financed by taxpayers."

* These findings were repeated in a 2007 Associated Press-Yahoo poll in which 65% supported a Medicare-for-all system.

So go to the meeting and go to the web sites. Let your elected officials know what you want. If you’re wary of universal health insurance and single payer systems, give the folks at Health Care for All a chance to give you facts about these issues. They'll even provide a speaker for your group to explain their goal.

As it turned out, after several biopsies, I don't have the genetic mutation that causes PV in 95% of the cases. So the genetic basis of my particular disease remains a mystery. That makes me not just a mutant but a mystery mutant. I am so proud.

It also turns out that longevity predictions stink. With the right medical care (not necessarily what the insurance company will pay for) dread diseases can often become mere nuisances. That my story and I'm stickin' to it. I do not plan to participate in anybody's statistical prediction formula.

Meanwhile, please check out what Health Care for All has to say. If you still don’t agree that health care reform is badly needed, I surely hope you never become a mutant, mysterious or not.