(1888PressRelease)
July 28, 2007 - Put simply, millions of Americans have no plan for the future of their health. Who’s to blame and who’s at risk? These are just a couple of questions being asked by at pbs.org. The focus is to identify those people who are at risk for a health care crisis and come up with a way to provide them with affordable health care. About 45 millions Americans have no health benefit of any kind. Many analysts agree that the main reason is two fold. Affordability and accessibility.
The answer to the healthcare crisis is to make health care accessible and affordable. We live in a free market economy and this is not likely to change any time soon. If we just assume that a socialist system is a better alternative, we must first realize that this system can be cited for its own potential drawbacks. Millions of Americans surely own stocks in these major medical industry players. The corporate ladder to the top of the healthcare fortune is a long one at that.
Many people in the health care industry have not stayed loyal to their original mission. When health insurance became available decades ago in the United stats, it was simply a form of employment benefits. Something designed to provide more security to working class citizens and their families. Today, health insurance has become some sort of commodity. Simply put, stock prices are always going up because, with the rising cost of health care itself, demand for insurance increases and so does the price.
Now that America is spending record levels on health care, they are seeing a backlash of debt making difficult for consumers to buy other products and commodities with a much more ethical approach to investing. Health care companies should be given incentives for their abilities to eradicate problems in the health industry. Instead of allowing them to make money on the stock markets, one take on the solution is that you make all health care companies into publicly held companies that receive most of their accolades and compensation from the awards that they win, not the profits that they boast on private golf courses and yachts amongst industry movers and shakers.
In reality, there are not that many major companies providing health care in America on a massive scale. Companies that provide health insurance plans include major carriers such as Cigna, Cobra, Delta, Aetna, HealthNet, Kaiser and several others. A program that is not insurance, but is rather a discount fee for service plan, includes Ameriplan and Dentalandhealthplan.com. This is a non insurance product that acts like insurance in some respects but very different in some very noticeable ways. As a discount health or dental plan membership, with these alternatives to “traditional health insurance”, you typically have a network of medical or dental care providers that you can choose from and you will simply save a percentage off of the normal fees for say a doctors’ visit. This has shown to be a good alternative for people who do not have any health insurance for people who can afford or qualify for major medical. Many insurance companies have stiff rules and you can not qualify unless you are already in good health. This may be called an oxy moron, but it can also be called reality.
It’s painfully obvious when the time comes to see a doctor or a dentist. As consumers, we may put it off and feel that we are currently healthy so that it is not a big priority. When the time comes that we need to see a doctor, we either pay their high prices or we get health insurance. The unfortunate aspect of this scenario is that most health insurance plans have a waiting period that can be as long as a year. This makes it difficult to access when we actually need it and in fact many, many people end up spending much more on health care premiums than the actual cost of their healthcare would even be. This is not cost effective and so many people do not even feel that health insurance is even worth the expense. If the insurance industry doesn’t tighten up their own ship, they may find themselves sinking soon. As people search for more affordable health plans and learn about the faults in the health insurance industry and its industry wide policies, the market will correct itself. Consumer driven health care models will continue to grow for many years. The low prices of an individual dental discount plan or medical discount plan can save a consumer a lot of money and maybe even a lot of paperwork. This competition will drive consumers in a new direction. We can only hope that whatever choice Americans make, it’s a better one than what we’ve had.
Persons under age 65
Number without health insurance: 41.6 million (2004)
Percent without health insurance: 16 (2004)
Percent with private insurance: 69 (2004)
Children under age 18
Percent without health insurance: 9.2 (2004)
Percent with private insurance: 63 (2004)
Percent with Medicaid or SCHIP: 26 (2004)
Source: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus065.pdf#133
Micah Carter
Publichealthsite.com
