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Originally Posted by Fotzlid
the only thing i see coming out of mandatory health insurance is another over-bloated government entity that will suck even more money out of my pockets.
the general population is the only one to point fingers at about the spiraling cost of healthcare. generally speaking we are fat and lazy. poor diets and a lack of exercise. everyone looking for a pill to cure everything.
the problem isnt going to go away till the root causes are addressed.
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More money than you realize, to the tune of $ billions/year, is now being sucked out of your pocket in the form of higher premiums for your health care and higher taxes to cover the medical costs of the uninsured.
What additional costs are created by the uninsured population?
* The United States spends nearly $100 billion per year to provide uninsured residents with health services, often for preventable diseases or diseases that physicians could treat more efficiently with earlier diagnosis.
* Hospitals provide about $34 billion worth of uncompensated care a year.
* Another $37 billion is paid by private and public payers for health services for the uninsured and $26 billion is paid out-of-pocket by those who lack coverage.
* The uninsured are 30 to 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized for an avoidable condition, with the average cost of an avoidable hospital stayed estimated to be about $3,300.
* The increasing reliance of the uninsured on the emergency department has serious economic implications, since the cost of treating patients is higher in the emergency department than in other outpatient clinics and medical practices.
Getting Everyone Covered will Save Lives and Money
The impacts of going uninsured are clear and severe. Many uninsured individuals postpone needed medical care which results in increased mortality and billions of dollars lost in productivity and increased expenses to the health care system. There also exists a significant sense of vulnerability to the potential loss of health insurance which is shared by tens of millions of other Americans who have managed to retain coverage.
Every American should have health care coverage, participation should be mandatory, and everyone should have basic benefits.
National Coalition on Health Care (feel free to evaluate the credibility and objectivity of the source)
Mandatory health insurance does not necessarily mean a bloated government entity, particularly in a transition period with a reliance on employer based health insurance. The federal government is the largest employer in the country and government workers have a choice between numerous plans from Care First (blue cross/blue shield) to various HMOs and PPos and other options. There is no government bureaucracy. A health pool for those small employers who currently do not provide coverage come be administered in a similar manner. An expanded SCHIP program, administered by the states, not a federal bureaucracy, could cover other working poor.
Health care costs will be more manageable when we are all not paying for the uninsured who are presently working w/o insurance, when there is a greater emphasis on educating consumers on the cost effectiveness of preventive rather than remedial treatment, and when the entire system is overhauled to be more technology driven.