Tom McCabe: If Congress can get great insurance, why can't we?

It wasn't until I read the Statesman's article (Oct. 12) on congressional health insurance plans that I realized why the Republicans in Congress don't want anything to change. They are sitting pretty at our expense.

The article said that Sen. Mike Crapo, for instance, pays $356.59 a month for health insurance for himself and his wife, with a $300 per-person deductible. The cost is so low because you and I, the taxpayers of this great country, subsidize Sen. Crapo's health insurance. We subsidize all members of Congress for that matter.

Now if I only had to pay $356.59 per month and had a $300 deductible, I'd be content with the current system, as well. Instead, I've recently switched to a $5,000 deductible policy - for myself alone - in order to bring my premiums down from $900-plus per month to $500-plus per month. My wife was forced to do the switch in order to reduce her premiums from $800-plus per month to $400-plus per month.

Fortunately for me, I am eligible for medical treatment at the VA Medical Center. Because I have a Purple Heart and a service-connected disability, I do not have to pay anything for my medical care, as long as I can get to a VA facility. Nevertheless, I have had to keep a health insurance policy to cover emergency situations. Also, because I underwent chemotherapy for lymphoma, I can't run the risk of dropping my health insurance because my lymphoma would be a pre-existing condition. This would be disastrous if I had to sign up for insurance again.

Don't get me wrong. My health insurance company paid a ton of money when I got cancer, for such things as surgeries, hospital stays, chemo, CT scans, PET scans and immune system boosters after each chemo treatment. But the company has boosted my premiums every year, which has forced me to raise my deductible from $1,000 to $3,000 and now to $5,000. This has the effect of increasing my out-of-pocket expenses drastically. And my health insurance company is supposedly a "mutual," but it keeps building more additions to its "campus."

It's time we were all eligible for the same health insurance plan as Congress. It's time that all the citizens of this country were included in a nationwide group insurance policy. If we were all part of the group, with no exceptions for pre-existing conditions, no one would have to wake up in the middle of the night and wonder if his or her unfortunate illness was going to bankrupt his or her family. We as a country should take better care of each other.

One more thing. I get excellent medical care at the VA Medical Center, a government-run health care program. The men and women at the VA in Boise are dedicated professionals who take great care of me. But we probably can't expand that to every citizen, because Republicans say that kind of government program would be "socialized medicine."

Tom McCabe of Boise is an attorney who practiced criminal defense for more than 25 years. He's also a combat veteran of the Vietnam War.