National Health Care and the Selfish Conservatives

I'm so sick of the conservatives whining about not wanting a national health care because they don't want their money being used to pay for others' health care services. Typical selfish, greedy little money grubbers shouting "My money, my money!" Yes, it is your money. But here's a news flash for you ..... you're already paying for others' health care! I know, you're thinking, "no I'm not! I only pay for my own health insurance." True. But why do you think the average family's health insurance premiums are something outrageous like $1,500/mo, whether they actually use it or not? Because the insurance is paying for everyone else who's running up more medical costs than their premium payments cover. And where do you think they get that money? From you, the one paying and not using all your insurance. So let's say you pay $1,500/mo for your family's insurance and use less or none. Your neighbor pays $1,500/mo for his family but has $3,000 worth of medical bills. Guess what. You're paying for his family's expenses. Instead of the government taking your tax money and using it to cover everyone else's medical expenses, the insurance companies take your money and use it to cover everyone else's expenses .... and shave a hefty profit off the top while they're at it.

Ok, so the next argument is usually something like, "well, at least I'm not paying for the lazy good-for-nothings who don't have insurance", right? But you'd be wrong again. You end up paying for the people without insurance indirectly. How? Because people without insurance tend to put off preventative care. By waiting until things get more serious before seeking medical attention their treatments end up being more extensive and costly. They often also use the ER for services so they won't be turned away, which is way more expensive than a regular doctor visit had they been able to see one earlier and not waited until it became critical. And if they can't pay for the services the hospitals have to eat it. But they don't eat the cost and then forget it. Oh, no. They have to raise the costs for everyone else to cover the costs of those who can't pay. And that increased cost gets passed on to your insurance company and ultimately to you with jack-up premiums.

Just face it. There's no way out of it. You're paying for others' expenses one way or another.

So how is the current insurance system better than a national government-paid-for health care system? Why do we need the middleman in there with their CEOs giving themselves multi-million dollar bonuses, especially when they get even bigger bonuses by working harder to deny claims to the people paying the outrageous insurance premiums? Oh, you don't think they work hard to deny claims to make bigger profits? Oh, yes they do. They spend millions of dollars ... millions of your dollars from premiums, I should add ... so they can create whole departments dedicated solely to finding ways to deny claims. So, besides helping to pay for others' medical expenses, paying CEOs outrageous bonuses, ...oh yeah, and paying dividends to shareholders ... you're actually paying the insurance companies to find ways not to provide you the service you're buying. Awesome system, isn't it?

And then we have the economic issue. People are going bankrupt every day due to huge medical bills. Small businesses are closing their doors or laying off employees due to the high cost of health care coverage. And it significantly hinders entrepreneurship, the thing we say America is so proud of. If you're a man with a wife and three kids dependent on your job to provide your family with health coverage and you have an idea for starting a small business, are you going to tell your family they have to go without health coverage until your new business gets off the ground? Probably not. There are many, many people out there with small business dreams and ideas who will never see them come to fruition because they are shackled to their current employer just for the health coverage. This is a ridiculous economic burden our system should not have to bear. I find it ironic that Republicans, who say they are the pro-business party, never seem to get this.

Btw, does it even make sense to put the burden of health care coverage on employers? Is there any other country that does, or has in the past, put the burden of health care coverage on employers? It's kind of weird if you really think about it.

So why not have a system where everyone pays into it so there are no "freeloaders" and no one is skimming huge profits off the top or denying claims or denying coverage? You're going to pay one way or another so this way you can at least rest assured that everyone has to contribute a share through their tax dollars. On top of that, you'll never have to worry about going bankrupt due to accident or illness. Why doesn't that sound better better to you?