Health Insurance for All!!

As mentioned before, I have some ideas on how we can make health insurance more affordable and accessible to everyone. Before I go into this, I'll give you a little background information. If you read my profile, you know I am a Paramedic and have seen the problems with health insurance, first hand, for the last 10 years.

With that said, I believe that health care should be available to all. Whether everyone takes advantage of it or not, is part of our free society. Making health care compulsory, as has been suggested, will only create havoc in the medical and hospital community and does not guarantee that people will sign up for it. If you have any doubts about this, look at car insurance. All states have laws requiring, at the least, liability insurance before someone can purchase a car. I can tell you first hand, that this does NOT mean that every driver out there has coverage. How can this be? Lack of enforcement.

Now, some states are better at this than others. When I lived in Nevada, if your insurance lapsed, DMV would be notified and your licence and registration would be suspended. Should you be pulled over for anything, you would be taking a little ride to jail. This is very efficient and not at all time consuming.

On the other hand, Texas- where I now live- makes a joke of their own laws. I was rear ended by a driver that not only had no insurance coverage, he was carrying a false insurance card. I contacted the Highway Patrol and was told there was nothing they could do. Huh?! I thought they were supposed to enforce the law. Here I am reporting a crime and nothing is done. SUPER!

What does this have to do with health care? The same would happen with compulsory health coverage. Say you make it mandatory for people to get health insurance. How would you verify this? You wouldn't know until the person gets to the hospital at which point, they must receive medical care sufficient to stabilize their condition, whether they can pay for it or not. It's the law. This has caused our emergency rooms to get over crowded with people who do not have insurance and use these facilities as a primary care clinic.

The proposed plan, as I understand it, would provide a tax break for individuals and families who have coverage whereby you can claim up to a certain amount of what you pay for insurance on your tax return. It also provides the same for non-covered individuals with the expectation that they use the money for a basic health insurance policy. Again, how exactly would you verify this? One way is to have the person send in evidence of coverage in order to receive the tax break. Immediately after which the person could cancel the policy and no one would be the wiser... until they need care.

A better option, as I mentioned before, would be for the Federal Government to give these tax incentives to the State and let the state provide several "free" options designed for individuals and families. For example, lets assume that the tax incentive is for $5000 for a family. The Federal Government would need to take this amount from the taxes collected and send it to the State. This guarantees the money is used for what it is intended for. Remember, I am not an economist and there may be logistical obstacles to a program like this. However, I am certain that it can be developed into something workable if the right people work on it.

Once these programs are established, the law needs to change to allow hospitals to deny care for the uninsured unless there is a life threatening situation. This will force people to get insured. There are plenty of programs out there. Medicaid is one example. Unfortunately, to qualify for this program you must have 6 kids and make about $.10 a year. The government needs to revise these outrageous requirements so that people can take advantage of these programs. They also need to be more stringent on the follow-up of people who are already on them.

I know plenty of people who are on Medicaid, Food Stamps, subsidized utility programs, etc., yet they drive around in brand new, top model vehicles, have a dish on their roof, a pool in the backyard and many other luxuries that the tax payers can't afford. I am not against these programs; however, if I am funding them through my taxes, I want accountability and the ability to use them if I'm ever in a bad situation. Unfortunately, I make too much money to qualify for any federal program although I can't afford a new car, or a new house or a pool. I'm sure many people out there understand this. Why don't we open our mouths and demand accountability?

A new program may or not work. As with any other federal program, it comes down to how it is administered. Unfortunately for us, our government- all of it- is too busy covering their own hides and policing the world to give a damn about us.