In Obama's first 100 days, there is hope for health care but a wait for solutions

While there are many aspects of President Barack Obama's agenda I'm hoping he'll deliver on, none seems more critical to me and my family than a health care and insurance solution. It's a mess.

I'm lucky. I'm insured. So are my parents, and so is my partner. But increasingly, even being insured seems like an inadequate safety net.

Two years ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. An early test for the disease was somewhat ambiguous, so my mother's doctor wanted to do a second scan. Insurance wouldn't pay. We were lucky, though, because my mother had $2,000 to pay for the test out of pocket.

But does this really make sense? Should determining if someone has cancer be optional?

My father hasn't had it so easy, either. For him, it was a stroke and endless complicated paperwork wrangles.

And while I'm relatively young and healthy, I was born with celiac disease, a genetic illness that makes me unable to consume gluten and puts me at higher risk for many forms of cancer and epilepsy. I need to know the insurance I pay so much for will work when I need it to. But sadly, the last time I needed to go to a doctor, I couldn't find a single one willing to accept new patients from my insurance plan.

Something's wrong here. When a health care system is too complicated for people to figure out, too strained to provide care or too indifferent to actually prevent, diagnose and cure illnesses, we're not getting our money's worth. We're truly not ensuring our health.

Obama gets this. Health care reform was a constant refrain in his campaign and has come up in many of his speeches since the election. His first 100 days in office have shown some movement, although limited, on health care issues.

Through the stimulus package, the White House designated funds for making medical records digital. While that isn't a reform of the health insurance maze, it is a step toward more accurate records and better information flow. It may lead to better care and savings. It shows Obama is serious about reform.

But the system is a mess, and people have been trying to fix it for years. (Remember President Clinton's failed efforts? They weren't the first.) With current economic woes and a national political culture that seems to imply only some people deserve to be insured, it remains to be seen how much progress the Obama administration can make on this front.

Sure, he's expanded the number of children covered by insurance through the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but insuring everyone won't solve the problem if insurance just continues not to work.

One hundred days in, I still have hope. But I am waiting for real solutions.