Private or Pubic Medicare Available for Everyone?

We continue to hear about health care reform and we continue to hear that Medicare reform is an ample part of the entire package of health care reform.

This means that not only does healthcare need changes that will save money and help keep coverage in tact as much as possible.

The health care reform that is currently being decided upon cannot solve all the issues that involve coverage, and the cost of individual care and what kind of quality that is provided to people.The health insurance companies and their lobbyists have a lot of money and would love nothing more than to see public healthcare disappear – and they are willing to do whatever it takes to make it go away.

Private medical insurance is in control in the United States and as a result this country spends far more on health care than any of the other developed and wealthy nations in the world.  In fact, other than Luxembourg, the United States pays at least 50% more than all these other countries.

Because of the strength of the private health insurance companies – an industry that is extremely strong in the United States – over 45 million people have to cope with not having health insurance.  This is unconscionable in a nation such as ours.  To exclude this many millions of people from basic care should not be happening.  The results of this lack of care, according to researchers, ends up with over 35,000 people dying per year because they don’t receive preventative or regular care.

Of course, private insurance companies have all sorts of ways of denying coverage, excluding pre-existing conditions and finding other ways to deny treatment to sick people.  In fact, the private insurance industry has had a strong involvement in numerous bankruptcies, even though people had insurance, but the insurance wouldn’t pay.  Unfortunately, the unsuspecting policyholders were stunned, since they thought they were totally covered.

With a public option that would include making Medicare available for all who need it, many of these problems would be eliminated.  In this system, there would be a single payer system and the government would end up being the single payer.  Everyone could receive treatment even if they couldn’t pay – because they would be covered – and they would not be denied coverage if they had a pre-existing condition.

In addition, this type of system would save between $350 to $400 billion per year in costs.  This would be enough in savings to cover the costs of coverage and treatment for all uninsured individuals.
Basically, a big part of the savings would come about by eliminating the insurance companies from the middle of the mix.

The insurance companies obviously don’t like this idea, but the pubic – especially those who don’t have insurance or any means to get it – would like to see something like this happen.

We are coming closer to the wire when lawmakers will cast votes to determine what kind of a health care system this country will have.  Let’s hope that lawmakers can hear the people and not just the insurance companies while they are looking for a solution.

Filed under: General-Medicare