The issue of health care is something that is on the minds of many Americans. While the government wrestles with the idea of a nationalized health plan, there are many who think that this will limit choices and the competitive health care industry. Unfortunately, when you look at the other options there really aren’t any. There are many who believe that this is not necessary; however, it is important to understand that we all pay to get these people health care one way or another.
There are over 45 million people in this country who had no insurance in 2005. Many of those will pay their bills to the best of their ability, the other 43 million spent for those people will be broken down in these categories. Government programs will take care of a third, and what’s left is handled with higher premiums for those people who do have health insurance.
This may appear that you’d be paying less than if you were to pay for a national insurance plan, but that may not be the reality. Consider the following scenario, you have a person come to the emergency department with a ruptured blood vessel in the brain which is causing internal bleeding. Of course the doctors and nurses are obligated to do all they can to save her life but death occurs despite their efforts. Trying to put the pieces together afterwards the family is questioned and they discover that Mary had high blood pressure, in choosing food for the family, she then had no money for medication. This medication could possibly have prevented this emergency treatment and death. Blood pressure medicine is very inexpensive, the yearly cost would have been extremely minimual compared to the hours in the hospital recieving treatment to prevent her death.
In this scenario, there were no winners. The people will wind up paying for the medical care Mary received at the hospital. The doctors, many of them, had to spend hours of time to try and save Mary, when really there was no hope. And of course, Mary died, leaving a void in the lives of her children.
Many will say, wouldn’t it be a more humane and effective choice to afford Mary the medication she needed?
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