Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Health Care – Anybody Care?, Pt.5 – Let’s build on hope.

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Recently, the Commonwealth Fund summed up methods where universal health insurance/care would eliminate or, at least, reduce costs to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Many of them were indirect, dealing with things like the burden on society caused by illness suffered by those without health insurance. The list went on and on and on. The desperation parody used here by Mr. Millenson is that, it was “as if civil rights activists had appealed for support against segregation because it was reducing the pool of qualified candidates for the Selma, Ala., police department. Mr. Millenson finds a little hope. A new trend is the growing number of “scaled-back” health insurance policies for families that are being proliferated around the country. These families still struggle with the reduced coverage, large deductibles and high co-payments, though. They are a little above the uninsured and might, aptly, be called “the underinsured.” Many of them are not very far away from the condition from MIKE-E lyrics “One paycheck from poverty/One illness or injury from misery." One day they may be segmented together with the uninsured.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute conducted a survey last year. Their results indicated that “two thirds of Americans were willing to pay 1 percent more in federal income taxes to make sure that everyone had health insurance.” This is very good news, if it is applied. More good news is that two Senators, Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore) have proposed a bipartisan bill called the Healthy Americans Act. This move was a very good step in the right direction for universal health insurance/care coverage. It took a while, but over time, our culture eventually set up protections for America’s vets, disabled and elderly. Even from their conceptions, there was always debate from the less-concerned stating they were “too expensive”. Our legacy will be weighed on the moral scale against the financial one. Mr. Millenson gives the best summary that I know of: “. It's our willingness to be our brothers' keepers that in part defines who we are as Americans.”