As you may already know, I work in health care. I’m a medical interpreter and cultural coordinator for a clinic that hosts a family residency program. And I also do cultural competency trainings for the medical staff.
Yep. That’s me: the moderate conservative and registered Republican advocating for being open-minded. Encouraging people to be more welcoming to differences; people who, on its majority, belong to the elite class of a city widely know to be the culprit of the liberal left --cars plastered in Obama posters included.
Given this context, yesterday I was preparing an email that we share with the staff, containing different articles and researches related to this topic.
I stomped with this Washington Post article announcing that recently passed legislation –that will take effect on January 2010– will require insurance companies to provide equal coverage for mental health and substance abuse, as they have with physical illness.
This is good news, I thought.
I’ve seen up close and personal the devastating effects that mental health conditions have in the overall well-being of a patient. Depression and anxiety do take a toll on people’s life. I thought insurance polices covered those conditions the same way they cover diabetes or high blood pressure; if it was not like that, then the change was long time overdue.
Where is she going will all this, you would think?
My shock hit when I read this:
“The change, which was included in the economic rescue package signed by President Bush last week, will take effect Jan.1, 2010, for most plans…”
Excuse me?
Can someone, please, explain this Cubanita over here what on earth has insurance coverage to do with bailing out the financial market to get them out of their own crap?
The bailout hasn’t started to spread my hard-worked earned taxpayer money and we already have troubles with transparency. Word is out there that up 10% of that chunk of money could go to bonuses. And the worst part is that they do not want us to know in detail where that money is going. Is someone trying to hide something? Noooo! How come?!
So, are we “rescuing” the economy or funding all sorts of interests and long overdue legislations with the taxpayer’s monies?
Why?
Banging my head against … Longs Peak.
(It's good that my insurance plan will cover completely mental health issues... I am going to need therapy. Lots of therapy.)
No comments:
Post a Comment