I just had a quick discussion with my wife and it reminded me why even the insured, especially those with kids with special needs, need health care reform. What most people don't realize is that they are one issue away from being grossly underinsured and needing drastic help with healthcare costs. Here are a few examples we've heard over the past few years.

• Child has developmental delays and requires weekly Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy that show results. Therapy co-pays are $40 per session, so that is $120 per week or $5000-$6000 more annually, not including any doctors visits.
• Child has a tracheostomy, but insurance company only covers 30 suction catheters a month or one a day. As an example of how grossly under covered this is, when our daughter has a cold, she might go through 15-20 in a day. This child's parents have to clean this sterile, disposable medical equipment multiple times a day.
• Child has feeding issues and does not eat anything solid and only drinks a special formula that costs more than $20 a day. However, insurer does not cover the cost of the formula because the child is growing and not failing to thrive.

These are just a few examples of how insurance does not mean your covered. Please add your own examples in the comments.

The Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) prohibits the improper use of genetic information in health insurance and employment.

Why do I have such a hard time believing people's motives are so good and in the best interests of the insured in this story via a tweet from 23andMe.

A healthcare industry group (The Care Continuum Alliance or DMAA)

and employer groups are urging for a moratorium on GINA fearing that the law's restrictions on "underwriting" activities will harm enrollment in wellness programs,

From Tweet Cloud:

The Apple iPhone is now becoming a medical device as developers find new and innovative uses for it. Medical professional's already have a variety of apps to help them in their jobs. However, new apps are now being created for a variety of people with medical needs.

These apps range from simple tracking applications like the Crohn's Toolkit which helps patients manage their disease better and give better data to their doctors to the soundAMP app that turns your iPhone into a digital hearing aid with record and playback capability.

Here is a list of apps I've found so far.

1. soundAMP - Turns iPhone or iPod Touch into an interactive hearing device
2. Crohn's Toolkit - Helps Crohn's and Colitis patients manage their condition better and
   communicate with their doctors.
3. iPrompt - One of a number of communication apps for use with children with developmental and language delays
4. Behavioral Tracker Pro - Supports tracking behavior and graphing it, including ABC therapy
5. Step Stones - Visual activity schedule for those with special needs or learning disabilities

UPDATE: I have created a wiki info page that anyone can update.

A new Quinnipiac University Poll says that 69% of Americans want a government-run health insurance option, while only 28% of the respondents would use it. What is really telling is:

Only 15 percent of voters would be willing to pay $500 to $1,000 more in taxes each year for a health care plan that reduces costs and covers those who don't have health insurance. Another 27 percent would pay less than $500 per year, with 3 percent who would pay $1,000 to $3,000 and 45 percent who don't want to pay additional taxes.

This is interesting for two reasons:

1. The average family with health insurance already pays an extra $1,000 a year in premiums to pay for health care for the uninsured, while the average individual pays an extra $370 according to a report by Families USA.
2. A government-run health insurance option will have "significant price advantages" over private health insurers according to Republican Senator Olympia Snowe and Conservative columnist George Will.

So, in effect a public option would probably reduce costs by insuring the uninsured and forcing private health insurance companies to become more cost competitive. Yet, pollsters are asking questions about paying more in taxes for a public option without debating the fact that costs would likely significantly decrease.

But what about government bureaucrats running health care and getting between you and your doctor? That is already occurring, the bureaucrats are just working at for-profit insurance companies who have already testified before Congress that they would not commit to limiting rescissions to only policyholders who intentionally lie or commit fraud to obtain coverage. A policy where:

an investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.

It also found that policyholders with breast cancer, lymphoma and more than 1,000 other conditions were targeted for rescission and that employees were praised in performance reviews for terminating the policies of customers with expensive illnesses.

Do you really want to trust the private health insurance companies more? They are the ones who

have forced consumers to pay billions of dollars in medical bills that the insurers themselves should have paid, according to a report released yesterday by the staff of the Senate Commerce Committee.