have an appointment each week with my mental health case manager on Wednesdays. This is a service that is billed at $100/hr and had been covered by my Medicare and State Medicaid until now. My household "gross" income rose over the acceptable amount, so I'm on my own. First let's talk about 'the ability to pay' part, in a downturn of the economy my town has suffered heavy layoffs and manufacturing and retail closings leaving us with very few jobs available in proportion to the unemployed. As a result for the last year my household has swelled to 13 people which for the most part beyond food stamps left me and my wife paying all expenses. I won't elaborate here except to say we do not have 'the ability to pay' anymore than we are capable. My decision here is one of two things, continue with my case manager mounting debt that I will pay out of pocket or discontinue and save what money I can towards my HRT treatments and savings for SRS.
As far as the new 'Health Care Reform', for me it will not be useful. Not only will it not be available until 2014, in all likely hood it will not cover the only thing that remains important to me as I am in excellent health, my transition to womanhood.
The interesting part of my session began at the very beginning when she was praising the passage of the new bill in Congress. Over the next hour I posed her questions about the bill. Her answers were both amazing and troubling to me. She absolutely new 'nothing' about the bill or it's intents, underlying taxes and negative incentives for individuals and businesses alike. This I don't believe is an isolated event, but if a verbal questioning of the majority who support this change were to occur, the results would be every bit as frightening.
Ignorance of what your Government calls 'good for America' without acquiring knowledge of what it is being offered is like signing a blank check from your personal account. No one would do that, would they?
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