Health insurance is supposed to offer protection ”” both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.
And so, even as Washington tries to cover the tens of millions of Americans without medical insurance, many health policy experts say simply giving everyone an insurance card will not be enough to fix what is wrong with the system.
Too many other people already have coverage so meager that a medical crisis means financial calamity.
Expect to see more sob stories to push America into a nationalized health system that will only further our national debt…
This is a good reason why I feel very fortunate that my wife and I (she’s a veteran, too) have 100% coverage by the Veterans’ Administration’s healthcare system…..flawed as some claim it to be. We’re also covered by TriCareForLife.
Some way has to be found to dramatically lower health care costs while not materially affecting that care.
Cennydd – that “some way” you mention is called reining in the trial lawyers and threats of huge insurance payouts, but since the trial lawyers contribute mightily to the political process, that ain’t gonna happen.
#1,
Is your point that these stories are regrettable but exceptional or that they are untrue?
Then I would suggest that it’s time to “rein in” those trial lawyers…..those ambulance chasers who can smell a fast buck from ten miles away. But then, how do we do that? Clamping a tight lid on jury awards and plugging all loopholes would be a good beginning.
And this would have to mean some “citizen action” by plain ordinary folks who are or might be affected by outrageous jury awards. Political action groups who are untainted by lawyers who are in it for the money, perhaps?
It has been a while but I have to weigh in on this one as I have seen many ignorant posts surrounding this issue and it is time to do something about it as a country. I own a small business and insurance exposure for my family with a $10,000 deductible is over $28,000 per year. I had a major illness 10 years ago and I am basically uninsurable even though I have had no problems since.
Soon, my insurance costs will approach $3,000 per month with no end in sight. It is not just the lawyers. The culprits include doctors, the health care industry in general and the insurance companies. As a friend of mine told me recently “Why should any one one want to fix the industry as there is no incentive to do so. Many people are getting rich from a system that has non-market forces controlling it.”
No, it is very broken and it will take a major correction (probably government intervention) or total collapse to fix it.
I, too, wanted to weigh in. I just spoke with a business owner yesterday who can’t get health insurance from any other company than BCBS who is looking to dump her. She is a low user, but is now overweight with high blood pressure. Her personal cost is $800 a month.
We are blessed to have health insurance in addition to Medicare for my disabled spouse. Even though every year our premium goes up and our portion of costs goes way up. Because of my spouse’s disability, we lost our house and went through bankruptcy because of the costs insurance did not pay, my having to give up my job to take care of my spouse, and the decreased salary due to Long-Term Disability which Social Security is subtracted from – not in addition to. Many of our nation are just a paycheck or two away from homelessness.
While I understand Cennydd’s point, we in FL have had the “blessing” of the limited caps for lawsuits. That meant that when my spouse experienced tremendous multiple medical malpractice events during a four month hospitalzation following surgery, the laws in FL did not make a lawsuit appealing to even the most abmulance of chasers to go unnamed. Plus, if you go to a state-related hospital, you have to sign forms that limit liability to $100,000 per incident. I’ve been told over and over again I should have sued. If you can’t get a lawyer to even listen to what happened as soon as you say where it took place, you can’t sue. There are many in this situation. Just to have the facility that caused the problem accept financial responsibility for the results of the mistakes they cause would solve a big problem. In our case, with therapy, medication, and equipment, it’s no small amount.
As long as health care is based on profit in any form, we will not have good care. The problems with socialized medicine – are still money based.
My experience in a country with a very good national health system (ie New Zealand) where all hospital care is paid for by the state — though you may have to wait for it — is that being sick in and of itself is very expensive. Health costs alone are not the only problem — there is also all the incidental expenses.
For instance when my child got critically ill at age 7 I had to hire a nanny to look after my younger children while I was in hospital with the son who desperately needed his mother to be there — this was my expense.
When my mother got very ill, I ended up having to buy in a lot more takeaway food for my family so that I could deal with all the consultations etc that were needed — again my expense.
When my father-in-law had a mental breakdown and was hospitalised, we were told by the doctors that his recovery would be much faster if we visited him very regularly — preferably every day. So we did — a 20 km round trip — not that far but the petrol adds up if you have to do it every day for 4 months – 2,400 kms is a big bill in my book.
And all of those do not take into account lost earnings if you take time off work.
So even getting a national health system does not mean that sickness is not an issue for people.