High costs put preventative Health Care out of reach

America's current health-care system needs fixing now. Many working families are one illness away from losing everything they've worked for if a family member gets sick. We cannot keep the status quo. It is not working. The skyrocketing costs of care put preventive measures out of reach for many. I had my annual physical and mammogram and that alone came to a little over $400. People used to receive health insurance as a benefit through their work. Many businesses now cannot afford to provide coverage for their workers. Companies lay off workers in order to be able to maintain their benefit package, or they simply choose an insurance plan that covers less. Those fortunate enough to have health coverage through their work are finding that their co-pays, their share of the premiums, their deductibles have increased. Those who purchase individual health insurance policies are at the whim of the insurance company. Extremely high deductibles, $5,000 to $10,000 annually to allegedly make the policy "affordable," the high co-pays, then what is and isn't covered does not make for good coverage. I'm one of the uninsured. I work, but my employer does not offer insurance because she cannot afford to. My family had a catastrophic plan, until I learned that our deductible was $30,000 per year, instead of the $10,000 I thought it was. We need health-care reform now. Reform needs to contain cost, cost of insurance and cost of care. Helen Hanson South China my Letter to the Editor published in the Kennebec Journal August 2, 2009