My views concerning a national healthcare system have changed over the past 7 years. I am neither for or against a national healthcare system as I have spent some time pondering over the pros and cons of the system. Obviously my views are not without bias because while I, like any other American, want and need health insurance for myself and my family I am also a physician and my bottom line stands to be drastically affected by and change in the healthcare reimbursement system.
There are too many people in America without health insurance. There was a time when I held it against these people for not having health insurance. I thought it was irresponsible for anyone not to have insurance for their family. Those who didn't qualify for government funded programs should find a way to put it in their budget to get their own policies. Part of me still feels that way, but I also know that health insurance for a family is not cheap and gets more expensive with each passing day.
The burden of the unisured is felt by all. My insurance premiums go up each year, in part, because of the millions of healthcare visits by the uninsured that are written off by all the hospitals and clinics in the country. Each time an unisured citizen gets a CT scan there is a bill to be paid and more often than not that bill is written off as a bad debt. Unlike the government, hospitals and clinics cannot opperate with a deficit so somebody has to make up the difference. Prices go up to offset the bad debt and insurance companies pass that price increase on to the insured in the form of increasing premiums.
Universal healthcare will solve the problem of the unisured. The argument goes that the cost to the nation will be offset by the benefit to the healthcare system as a whole. Everyone will get the care they need. Preventative medicine will actually take place and help us to avoid many of the expensive hospitalizations and procedures that occur because of lack of preventative medicine. Physicians will not lose money because they will have a much higher percentage of paying patients.
Doesn't everybody win with Universal Healthcare?
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2 comments:
I am not one to read the websites, magazines that you read. At times I feel that my opinons are swayed very easily by what I hear on NPR as I am driving. So that being said thanks for this blog, I'm not sure how much I will check it, but it is a good way for me to have something other than NPR to form opinons from.
Becca
Thanks for the healthcare op-ed. I think I pretty much agree with everything you said. My one concern is how people who don't take care of themselves would be cared for. Would smokers, druggies, people who are grossly overweight (without medical cause) have to pay something out of pocket or whatever? It certainly wouldn't be fair for people like you, who are active, healthy, and avoid harmful substances, to have to pay as high taxes for healthcare as people who need three times the care simply because they don't care for themselves. You know what I mean?
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