Most people would agree that medical insurance any more is a mess.<\/p>\n
Deductibles are sky high, co-pays are outrageous, anybody with ‘pre existing’ problems has MAJOR problems.<\/p>\n
It is, plain and simply, a mess.<\/p>\n
Some of those in the medical profession saw this coming.\u00a0 I’ve only been a nurse since 1996 and I was young(er), getting ready to get married, had a million things to do, see, plan, think about.\u00a0 I remember hearing the rumblings then.\u00a0 But I didn’t pay them much mind.\u00a0 A lot of people didn’t-some were in the medical field like me, and a lot of people outside the medical field, I’d imagine.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until a few later later that I started paying more attention, and by then, it was already worse.\u00a0 I was even a little surprise at how bad some of it had gotten.<\/p>\n
The wiser medical professionals around me weren’t surprised.<\/p>\n
They’d seen the writing on the wall.<\/p>\n
It makes sense, looking back.\u00a0 Many of them had already been dealing with the small problems that hadn’t ever been problems before.\u00a0 Then those problems became bigger problems. And new problems that had never been problems cropped up.\u00a0\u00a0 The medical professionals talked about it-I can remember one nurse I knew, he talked until he was blue in the face trying to educate me.\u00a0 I listened…some.\u00a0 It was what he said that eventually made me pay more attention.<\/p>\n
A lot of people, though, unless they were directly affected, they didn’t realize there was a problem, and if they did…wel, they had good insurance-they had no co-pay and their prescriptions cost maybe $5.\u00a0 Since the ‘problems’ didn’t affect them, they didn’t pay much attention.<\/p>\n
But now that problem has grown, I’d say.\u00a0 It’s affecting more and more every day.\u00a0 We’ve got ‘ok’ insurance and I say that with a grain of salt.\u00a0 It could be better-our deductible bites, and some of the drugs I need for asthma and my headaches?\u00a0 Painful.\u00a0 But it could be worse-we could have no<\/em> prescription drug coverage, and that’s the case for many.<\/p>\n It’s growing, it’s getting worse…and it’s a problem some people, namely the medical professionals, have seen coming for quite a while.\u00a0 They were on the inside, right?\u00a0 They were the ones calling and fighting with insurance companies, writing the letters, over and over…What started as a trickle became a flood and now even those who have what they call decent insurance are still appalled at the bills they are stuck with.\u00a0 Some people can’t get insurance, period, and some need it and can’t afford.<\/p>\n Now-lets not take this into politics and all that-that’s not where I’m aiming.\u00a0 This is just a parallel…of sorts.<\/p>\n Years ago, the medical professionals saw a problem coming-medical insurance, insurance coverage, all of it.\u00a0 I don’t remember the start of it, but I can tell you I spent plenty of time in the day job dealing with insurance problems that never should have become a problem in the first place.<\/p>\n The publishing industry is seeing a problem.\u00a0 It’s piracy.<\/p>\n A lot of people, both readers and authors alike, don’t see it affecting them as much, or at all.\u00a0 And right now, maybe as a big picture view, it doesn’t.<\/p>\n But here’s the thing, that big picture is made up of small pictures-authors, booksellers, publishers, agents, cover artists, etc.\u00a0 And as things in the publishing world shift and sway and try to cope with the problems being brought on piracy, those small pictures begin to shift.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How many shifts before that big picture gets changed on a major level?\u00a0 Before that trickle becomes a flood?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"