Health care in the United States

Samantha S.

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Health care in the United States

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There is not sufficient health insurance for every citizen to have access to adequate and quality health care. This is a pressing concern for 47 million Americans (Bacon). This is also a concern for employers providing health insurance to their employees and to employees that do not have access to health insurance or do not qualify or are unable to afford it. The lack of health insurance costs lives, money and time (Graves, Long). Uninsured individuals miss work that could have been prevented through care and treatment provided though health insurance. The most tragic consequences are the preventable deaths that occur each day. As a whole the uninsured population cost their employers and tax payers millions of dollars each year in reactive care, and lower workplace productivity (NCHC). The high number of uninsured individuals is caused by the high cost of private insurance, the high cost of premiums for both employees and employers (Cohen). The difficulty of meeting personal health requirements through individual companies also contributes to the high number of uninsured Americans. If this number is not lowered and actions are taken to keep it from rising again, their will be a dramatic increase of uninsured individuals and the money set aside by the government to aid the uninsured will not be enough, overwhelming the already fragile health care system.

Introduction.
The high number of uninsured individuals.
The case of Amy Barr.
1. The difficulties of health insurance.
2. Diagnosed with COPD and fibrosis.
The case of Kelly and Tim Argo.
1. Forced to rely on private insurance.
Rise in the number of uninsured individuals.
The report by John Graves and Sharon Long from The Urban Institute.
The economic and social consequences of being uninsured.
The problems created by the lack of health insurance and the 2008 presidential elections.
1. The democrats preference to universalize health care.
2. The Republican Party's believe that it is the individuals responsibility to find and acquire health insurance.
3. The lack of a definite solution that can eliminate the problems created by the lack of insurance.
Conclusion.

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[...] Kelly and Tim Argo favor a universal health care system paid for through the government and the individuals. This plan would lower the cost of heath insurance for every individual regardless of income and it would ensure that everyone would receive the same quality of care. However, as Karen Davis points out in her report Uninsured in American: problems and possible solutions, the federal budge it is deficit. Funding universal coverage would require a raise in taxes, but it would also reevaluate how the government spends its tax revenue. [...]

[...] The National Coalition on Health Care provides some facts and figures on the reasons for the increases in the uninsured population in America. Many employees are simply not offered health insurance due to companies trying to reduce their costs; more than one third of all companies in the U.S. did not offer health insurance in 2005 according the NCHC. The rising cost of premiums affects both the employee and the employer in providing and obtaining heath insurance. The cost of premiums raises about twelve percent per year (NCHC). [...]

[...] Before losing his job, they received affordable health care though the VA hospital, where Wayne had been employed for almost twenty- nine years. Upon being fired Wayne became terminally ill and was forced to rely on COBRA to cover his health care costs. However with COBRA the individual has to pay the entire premium without any assistance. Wayne paid a thousand dollars a month just to insure himself even though he was no longer earning an income. He received disability making his income level too high to qualify for government assistance such as Medicaid. [...]

[...] If the number of uninsured rises this will create additional financial stress on an already over allocated budget, creating a high number of individuals with absolutely no health care which will devastate both the economic and the social quality of life. Preventable illnesses and diseases will decrease worker productivity and will spread because individuals will not be able to afford preventable measures. However this can be prevented if individuals are presented with an incentive for acquiring any form of health insurance and are given the option of private insurance as opposed to public assistance which will create a competitive market amongst insurance companies keeping the quality of care high and the cost low. [...]

[...] There are fifty million uninsured Americans in the United States (Bacon). These fifty million are children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly. Lack of insurance affects individuals from all socioeconomic backgrounds and demographics. Seventy percent of the fifty million uninsured come from families in which at least one adult works full time (NCHC). The age group with the highest number of uninsured individual is the young adult group, ages eighteen to twenty four (NCHC). Thirty percent of all young adults in this group were uninsured. [...]

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