Right now, we’re trying to insure 45 million Americans who don’t have health insurance. How did health insurance get so expensive?
First, there are administrative costs. Every office has a different administrative system. A universal system would cut down on these seeing that you’d be enrolled in a single system. Ever notice that if you go to a different office you have to fill out the paperwork you’ve filled out dozens of times over and over and over again? This would reduce costs.
Second, the uninsured drive up costs. You see, the uninsured don’t make regular doctor visits because they can’t afford it. As a result, they typically only seek care when they suffer from a serious illness or injury. When this happens, they rush to the ER. Of course, they are billed for their evaluations, treatments, and stay. Do they pay the bill? No. They don’t have the money. (Remember, the vast majority of bankruptcies in the US are related to medical bills). When they don’t pay the medical service provider (hospital, clinic, or doctor’s office) has to write off what they can, and pass the rest of the loss down to the consumer. As a result, the cost of health care goes up. As the cost of health care goes up, insurance premiums rise to meet the increasing costs. And when insurance premiums rise… more people determine that they can’t afford insurance. As a result… more people are uninsured and turning to the ER and the cycle starts all over again year after year, after year, after year.
Imagine if a car lot was run this way. Imagine that you could show up at a car lot and say you have an emergency need for an automobile. Yet you have no financing or cash in hand. Then, the car lot shows you around the lot and gives you a car and they simply tell you that they will bill you. Now imagine that the vast majority of people are slow pays or no pays regarding that bill. What will happen to the price of cars in this car lot? They will skyrocket. Why? The dealer will have to pass the loss down to the consumer to stay in business.
Notice absolutely NO business is truly run like health care. Therefore, we cannot say that we have free market health care. Why? Because the free market wouldn’t provide services for those who are uninsured or who can’t pay cold hard cash. Don’t believe me? Walk onto a car lot and tell them that you have no money or financing. LOL Go try and order a pizza without having cash or credit card. Lol
If we truly had a free market health care system… it would turn away the uninsured or those who can’t pay cash. Since no one is truly turned down (accept for long term treatments and procedures) we need a way to ensure that EVERYONE at least pays SOMETHING into the system. Why should YOU and ME pay for the uninsured with ever rising health insurance premiums????
Since care is provided to our society on a nearly universal basis… then society at large has to find a way to universally pay for the service. You enjoy well lit and paved roads right? All of society benefits from them. We all know the value of having ready police, fire, and EMS services. And we all help pay for these things via our taxes. Now, imagine that they expanded Medicare and Medicaid. The average family of four can pay nearly $400 or more a month for a really decent health insurance plan that provides extensive coverage. Even if everyone’s taxes increased by $100 dollars a month it would be cheaper than the cost of the current monthly premium.
Thirdly, why do we shoulder businesses with this burden? A business’s mission is to sell a produce or provide a service to make money. The amount of time and resources that go to insure that employees have a health insurance plan is an unnecessary burden on business. Since individuals need and seek care… why not pass this responsibility to each individual and unshackle business in our country? We have businesses and corporations moving to so many locations wherein businesses are not shackled with this responsibility. C’mon… let’s get real.
Fourth, I have many friends and family in Canada. They are aghast with how we characterize their health care system. They haven’t had the troubles with the system that they hear us talk about. Sure, no system is perfect and I don’t doubt one can find individual situations wherein the system isn’t working for a given case or wherein there is a wait time in sparsely populated regions where there aren’t a sufficient number of specialists in a given area of medicine. But I’ve never heard anyone that I know in Canada complain. In fact, they laugh and talk about the “right wing liars” here in the United States who make it sound like their system just allows people to wither and die all the time. When the truth be told… between 45 and 50 THOUSAND Americans DIE each year from treatable conditions simply because they don’t’ have sufficient health insurance coverage. Let’s humor the idea. Let’s say everyone has to wait a bit longer for various treatments or procedures that are non-life threatening. So, what’s worse? Waiting a couple weeks for a knee replacement (with excellent pain medication prescribed by the way) or dying because you can’t afford specific treatments for a serious condition? Give me a couple weeks on darn good meds any day. Lol
Fifthly, we aren’t rising to the occasion because of fear. We look at some of the problems other countries have had and we fail to realize… we don’t have to do it exactly like them. In fact, if we determined to go single payer… we would have entire panels established to study the various problems such a system might face and has faced in other countries. Seeing that we’re far behind on the efforts of universal health care… we have an advantage to learn from their mistakes. Thereby aiding us in making any universal health care system in the United States superior to any other in the world.
All it takes is the tenacity to believe and be bold. Make it happen. Take into consideration that modern Israel has universal health care. Their rabbis see it as a moral imperative given the Torah’s stipulations on social justice and provision for the least in the nation. You’ll notice as time goes on more and more physicians and corporations are going to be examining and pushing for single payer. It will ensure greater personal responsibility for our own health. It will ensure that everyone pays something into the system that we all benefit from. It will unshackle businesses and corporations. It will ensure that providers are paid for services, thereby cutting out the loss that’s passed down each year to the consumer. It will reduce administrative costs. And be cheaper than what most families pay in premiums each month for a decent plan. As more people are insured, more will establish a family doctor and regular physicals, thereby catching serious illness earlier and as a result reduce the costs for treatment.
We can do it. All we have to do is believe and make it happen. They said we’d never put a man on the moon. We did. Now, we have to get this right. We’re falling behind and as it stands the United States has one of the most costly systems on the planet for individual citizens. We can do better. We must. I look at my children and realized that we’re the first generation that will not be leaving our children in a better society than the one we grew up in.
While you might not agree… at least really look into it. Here’s a link to get you started if you want to really see what the vision is:
http://www.pnhp.org/
Linear Mode
