<p>Is healthcare a joke</p>

Is healthcare a joke

There have been a lot of talk in America about the health care systems in America. There is a lot of nonsense being thrown out that is really making the debate a joke. So we here at Slashing Tongue have decided to give a health care 101 for the viewing public.

Current system in America

It is a mixture of both public and private options.

Public components of health care are Medicare, SCHIP, Medicaid, VHA, MHS, and others. These are for special groups like for Veterans, young children, very old, poor and government employees. About a ¼ of Americans receive their health care this way.

Private Insurance account for coverage for 3 in 5 people in America. 5 of 6 in this group get it via their employers or family’s employers. The rest buy their own health insurance. This number though is expected to go down in the future.

There are still 15% of the population that are uninsured. Of these 15%, 4% actually are eligible for public health care under the current system but do not know about it. Why? Embarrassingly, it is an utter breakdown of communication from the government to the people. The media should take some blame too. 3% can actually afford it but are not bothered to get health insurance and 9% of the American people really cannot afford it. Half of this 9% are illegal immigrants.

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There are also complains of doctors collaborating or are being forced by insurance companies to deny proper care to patients. In my opinion, this should be a crime and the most important aspect of health care reform is to keep the profession of insurance and medicine apart.

Universal health-care

It simply means that the taxpayer pays for your health care. Should anything happen to you, the tax payer would foot the bill.

The pros are that things happen easily, contrary to many conservative pundits claim and that there would not be a worry for the tax payer with regard to the health bill. Coverage is mutual.

The cons are that people get covered no matter what. E.g. Would it be fair that the state pays for the hospital bills for a lung cancer patient because this person smoked all his life? There is that sense of unfairness in universal health care. It is also very expensive and is prone to mismanagement.

The longer waiting time for universal health care, death panels and health-care rationing are just myths of the conservatives. The primary objectives of health care, private or public, is to save lives, not to put patients in danger or kill them.

Public option as suggested by President Obama

What many people do not know is that the public option is basically an index. Think of it as a stock index where there is one stop price comparison for all form of health-care for people that are not covered. There is/was also a plan that is given out by the government that is put in. There are some signs now that the government plan may not be in the health care reform.

ST Take on Public option

One of the biggest problems in the medical insurance industry is that it is very difficult to start an insurance company. You need huge financial backing and actual money in the bank to start an insurance company. Like banks and pharmaceutical companies, you do not see college students starting insurance companies.

Hence, there is a lack of competition that drive prices up. If there is more competition, health care prices would go down. That was why the President had the idea of having a government plan to challenge the private insurers and force their prices down. However, there is no way that the insurers who need to make profits can match the prices of the government who does not need to.

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I still think that government health care should only be the last resort that we turn to. I think that we would be killing a sacred cow if we are going to jump into universal health care or government health option. The reason is that it cost the taxpayers lots of money. It is going to result in higher taxes down the road set aside just to pay for health care.

I do not find universal health care demonic or atrocious as many right wingers feel. I just think that the United States can still survive without it and should carry on doing so with better ideas.

Whether or not people are against government involvement in health-care I think that the indexing part of this plan is a very good and simple idea that would work wonders if regulated well. If the government can help sprout insurance companies and get them to join this list, then I think that it would create a perfect system.

It is only if this or other ideas fail, that we should approach universal health care.

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