|
 |
Health Insurance
Serving Individuals, Families,
Businesses & Groups Nationwide.
|
|
Health Insurance
|
Home
| Schwarzenegger Seeks to Curtail California Individ... »
| Affordable Health Insurance Has Pros and Cons »
| Affordable Health Insurance Still Hard to Find, bu... »
| Should Health Insurance Be Based on Lifestyle Choi... »
| Small Business Health Insurance in Maryland Gets B... »
| Massachusetts Health Insurance Plugs On »
| New Florida Health Insurance Plan Faces Challenges... »
| Lacking Government Insurance Assistance Hurts Cali... »
| Politics Getting Serious About Individual Health I... »
| Obama Proposes Tax Cuts for Small Business Health... »
Everywhere we look these days, low cost health insurance is in the news, and especially the political news. It seems that medical coverage has become the hot-button issue of today's political arena, and as USA Today says, "underscores the central role the issue is playing in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination." Senator Barack Obama has called for universal low cost health insurance that should be available to all. Senator John Edwards wants to require all children in America be covered by medical insurance. Hillary Clinton has discussed "how she would make health care less expensive," and yet still increase the quality of medical coverage on the market today. But the real question we must ask is this, will any of it work? With a healthcare system as broken and complicated as ours, can we manage the complete overhaul necessary to make low cost health insurance available at last? Hopefully so. After all, if the rest of the industrialized world can do it, we probably can too. And, with all of the attention finally focused on the medical state of affairs in America, something good is bound to come of it.
As outrageous health care premiums, poor coverage, and overpriced medical procedures and prescription drugs continue to plague Americans, a general lack of affordable medical insurance is leading to a great deal of medical debt and bankruptcy filing. According to madison.com, "over half of all bankruptcies" involve medical debt. As one attorney testifies, "I have met many people with no insurance or such poor coverage that they are virtually uninsured. Some need surgeries and cannot have them since the hospital will not treat them." It's a horrible cycle: if you don't have access to affordable medical insurance, then you don't get the kind of checkups and treatment that can prevent major illness. Then, when you get sick, you can't work, you can't afford medical bills, and your only option is to get as much treatment as possible in the emergency room and then look to bankruptcy filing. This situation leaves patients and hospitals both dealing with medical debt, all based on our broken healthcare system. The best thing most people can do is to get as much coverage as possible, and search extensively online for affordable medical coverage that covers the basics. Those regular checkups can do a lot to protect your health, and hopefully upcoming legislation will soon bridge the gap between the uninsured and the treatments they need.
An AARP national study has found that the cost of prescription drugs, one of the leading reasons that medical insurance coverage costs have gone up, is hitting the Hispanic and African American communities hardest of all. According to the study at prnewswire.com, "the high costs of prescription drugs led many Hispanics and African Americans to take desperate measures, like delaying filling a prescription or skipping doses." It's a vicious cycle: the outrageous costs of medical insurance coverage make it difficult for most people to find insurance they can afford, and many of those who end up without health insurance are from Hispanic and African American Communities. As a result, they often can't get access to the prescription drugs they need, or they simply can't afford them. And the high cost of those prescription drugs leads to higher prices for medical insurance coverage, completely excluding large communities of people from the medical care that they need. Something must be done quickly to remedy such an unfair situation. Hopefully, upcoming legislation will address the issue, moving us toward a healthcare system that doesn't care about where you are on the economic ladder.
As election time draws near, more and more politicians are bringing up the subject of medical health insurance, hoping to get the attention of their candidates, and later, their vote. And this makes sense, since according to Bloomberg health insurance is at the top of the list of things that Americans want fixed, pronto. "Public- opinion polls cite health-care among the chief worries of Americans as spending rises faster than inflation even while 45 million people are uninsured." At the front of the line is Senator Hillary Clinton, whose first stab at universalizing medical health insurance was not successful. She says she's ready to tackle the subject again, armed with the knowledge she picked up the first time she tangled with our broken healthcare system. Will it work? Will affordable medical health insurance finally be available to all Americans, regardless of their income or health status? It's still too early to tell, but it certainly can't hurt to have so many people focused on an issue that means so much to the country.
The Senate on Monday effectively killed a measure that would have let Americans buy discount prescription drugs from foreign suppliers, which sponsors said could have saved consumers billions of dollars. At the same time, with this veto the Senate has also ensured that affordable health insurance will continue to elude American consumers unless it becomes state or federally funded. At the Chicago Tribune the story is summarized for readers; "by a 49-40 vote, senators approved a provision requiring the government to certify that imports are safe - a step the Bush administration is unlikely to take. The amendment, offered by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), was seen as a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry." The argument is that by allowing discount prescription drugs over US borders, counterfeit drugs could find their way into the system. But whether or not this is the case, the final outcome is that affordable health insurance has once again slipped away. The rising costs of prescription medications are one of the main reasons that health care costs have skyrocketed in recent years. These drugs are expensive, and they are prescribed more today than ever before, party because doctors are often incentivized to do so, and partly because Americans are so very unhealthy today. Sadly, at least for the time being, what has been called the "poison pill" that killed American access to discount prescription drugs has also killed the hope for better insurance options.
At Reuters this week, a new study finds that affordable health care is denied to those who need it most: the uninsured. It's a terrible story that illustrates the many injustices to be found in a broken medical care system. U.S. hospitals are charging uninsured patients about two-and-a-half times more than those with health insurance, a mark-up that has been steadily rising despite pressure to level prices. Right now hospitals only collect about 10% of what they charge to uninsured patients. But the costs to those patients appear as medical debt, and can lead to bankruptcy. Clearly providing affordable health care to everyone would be, without debate, the fastest way to minimize these costs both to hospitals and patients alike. But as it says in the article, "the real problem of course, is that we live in a country where we don't guarantee coverage for everybody," and that's a topic that is still under debate.
At Anchorage Daily News the struggle for Snow City Café to provide a small business health insurance plan that everyone can afford falls into familiar trouble. The byline asks, "What happens when one Alaska small business tries to do the right thing?" The answer is, the same thing that happens to any small business struggling to keep up with ridiculously high health insurance premiums, meaning that in this market business owners must choose between offering coverage to employees, or losing profits and potentially losing their business. As it says in the article, this particular example is "a sad commentary on our country's health care system," and reflects our tremendous need to make a change. But the dream of a small business health insurance plan that pleases both employees and employers will never come true until health insurance agencies can provide coverage at a decent cost, and that won't happen until medications and treatments are made for affordable. When this finally happens, whether it's government subsidized or state funded, health insurance will be easier to come by for everyone, and no employer will have to choose between the health of his or her workers, and the health of their business.
In the struggle to create an affordable family health insurance plan that could apply to everyone, few people thought that big businesses and health insurance agencies themselves would come to the rescue. Strangely, that may just be the case. According to latimes.com, a new coalition of 36 major companies plans to launch a political campaign today calling for medical insurance to be expanded to everyone along the same lines Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing for California. The coalition, which would campaign for affordable family health insurance and medical coverage for everyone, and is supported by insurers and drug firms that would benefit from mandated health insurance, including Aetna, Blue Shield of California, Cigna HealthCare, Eli Lilly and Co. and PacifiCare. These firms already provide medical coverage to employees, and as premiums have skyrocketed in recent years, they're feeling the pain too. So, will this coalition work? It's not clear just yet - small and midsized operations have resisted health insurance mandates in order to keep their own businesses afloat. However, when powerful and wealthy companies step up to the plate for healthcare coverage, some kind of change can't be far behind.
With the U.S. House passage of HR 493 - the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, it will be harder for insurance agencies to deny health insurance coverage to those with a congenital medical condition. But what about those who are suffering from discrimination today due to pre-existing conditions? It's an impossible and disturbing situation. Anyone with a pre-existing medical condition will need medical care in order to be a functioning member of society. However, if you have such a condition getting health insurance coverage is near impossible, leading to ridiculously high medical debt. As it's outlined by one mother at thespectrum.com, whose son has a congenital medical condition, "The option we were told repeatedly by insurance companies, which would be a sure way to get our son insured, was to become destitute, liquidating all our assets, to qualify for governmental assistance through Medicaid. It was offensive every time to be told discreetly in all its political correctness that the health care system does not encourage people to be productive." So what is the solution? Many feel that the prescription drug lobby needs to be controlled, and that the strangle hold that pharmaceutical companies have on health insurance companies and consumers alike must be loosened. Until then agencies can't afford to offer good health insurance coverage to anyone with a medical condition, and those who need coverage the most will be left out in the cold.
|
|
