Remember that time you slipped on the ice and busted open your elbow? Or the time your friend drank too much and you somehow ended up in the emergency room with her? Or the time that Chinese food aggravated your peanut allergy and you had to rush to the emergency room before your throat closed up? Even with health insurance, those were some costly visits. Now imagine trying to pay for them without any help from insurance.
A number of plans now circling the political circuit would make worrying about not having health insurance a thing of the past. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a statewide plan to provide health insurance for all citizens, while President Bush put forth an idea for more affordable insurance in his State of the Union. Meanwhile, democratic presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have made cheaper health care one of their main talking points.
None of these plans are definitive and none are likely to make it through the legislature in their current state, but their existence means that health care is likely to be reformed in the next few years. And that means cheaper health insurance, potentially cheaper hospital visits and a restructuring of the government’s health care coverage.
As you may have heard, about 47 million Americans do not have health insurance, including eight million children and four million college students. Many of these people are poor, unemployed or immigrants, putting all of them at a disadvantage. The unemployed obviously don’t have insurance from their jobs, while the poor can’t afford the increasingly expensive private plans. Of course, the Catch-22 is that the high costs of the private plans come partly from costs imposed on the medical system by those without insurance.
Meanwhile, employers, who normally want to avoid government health care, are even pushing for some sort of increase. Lucky for us, though, there is a growing idea that health insurance reform should start with the children and college students. Thus, we would get our health insurance covered by whatever system the government comes up with before we venture out into the workforce.
Of course, increased health care coverage from the government means higher taxes, putting a real damper on the whole thing. Schwarzenegger has justified this by saying those who pay for insurance now pay a “hidden tax” for the uninsured. However, there are many who are still opposed to the government taking over, since it would effectively amount to a tax increase for the wealthy for a program they don’t really need.
Still, the program is a healthy first step on the road to government health care. The government does seem to be moving towards some sort of universal health care, whether it means expanding Medicare, standardizing prescription drug rates or covering all doctor’s visits. Soon we may have a system more like Canada’s, where the government pays for 70 percent of health care costs and private entities cover much else, leaving a publicly-funded health care system.
Whatever the health care debate brings, you can rest assured knowing that your next trip to the hospital may be a little less costly. But, for the time being, it might be a good idea to watch that Chinese food. And definitely, never drink too much.