I know you've all heard it before. The health care system in the US is simply not working. And now that Americans are becoming more and more aware of this, it is one of the hottest topics in the 2008 Presidential elections. Many candidates have given proposals for how they would fix health care. But lets look a little at the system as a whole.
I currently have over 10 articles for this topic open, so I'm going to break this up into many blogs, instead of inundating you with all the information at once. We'll start by looking at the US health care system as it is now, and how it compares to other countries' health care. In future blogs, I will look at possible solutions to our problem.
As this article so bluntly points out, the United States spends the most of any developed country on its health care. Yet is ranks last in quality, access, and efficiency. One thing to point out is that the countries that rank above us in those terms have universal health coverage of some form. Additionally, 45 million Americans do not have health insurance.
But let's look at what medical care costs in the United States, and move from there. Say you get appendicitis, and have to stay in the hospital for several days to recover. Well, it's about $3,000 a day for you to stay. So if you stay a mere 2 days, you have a $6,000 bill from the hospital stay alone. This is, of course, without insurance. The reason it costs less with insurance is that the insurance companies agree to send many patients in exchange for a smaller cost. The insurance company picks up a portion (up to all) of the cost, and passes the difference onto you, in exchange for a monthly fee.
The reason many people don't have health insurance is simply that it is too expensive. So, these people do not get routine care, and their health problems grow and grow until they are forced to go to an emergency room. And by law, they are not allowed to be turned away from there due to an inability to pay for their care. So, they get more expensive treatments than would have been necessary.
Of course, with the popularity of limited care plans growing, we're facing a new dilemma of under insured people. These plans typically allow for a set price on the amount of health care costs allowed in a given year. This ranges from $2,500 a year to $150,000 a year, depending on the plan. But the high priced ones aren't easily accessible to the person that only makes $25,000 a year. So, they run through their allowance due to an accident, and wind up with huge medical bills, or refusal of treatment because their insurance will not cover the procedures they need.
Let's face it people, when the most advanced country in the world cannot provide its citizens health care, we have a problem. And it needs to be fixed. Now. Stay tuned for more.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
And think about it for the present generation and what will happen to us... We don't get 100% of our benefits from social security.. so basically... we're screwed.
Yeah, the money coming out of people's paychecks is going to pay for the people on social security now. That's why a number of companies are starting to offer alternatives to it, so that the money you put away is yours, and no one else's.
~C
Visit my blog: www.progressiveu.org/blog/mvenus929
Read the news: www.progressiveu.org/news
"Let's face it people, when the most advanced country in the world cannot provide its citizens health care, we have a problem. And it needs to be fixed. Now."
Love that last part. Really addresses the problem straightforward.