Or, to put it another way, it's a system for paying your doctor bills, hospital bills, dentist bills, prescriptions, and whatever other medical necessities one has, (vision, hearing, medical appliances such as wheel-chairs, mental health, substance abuse, etc etc).
How does it work?
Instead of paying a private Insurance company a 'Premium' to be a part of their program, (a payment which is usually taken directly out of your paycheck), and have them disburse funds to your various medical pratitioners, that same money will, instead, go into a Universal Health-Care fund that is regulated, and administered, by the U.S. government. They will be the ones to disburse the funds to your various practitioners instead of the private Insurance companies doing so.
Why is this a good idea?
Well, unfortunately, it comes down to quite a few reasons. The first being that, even tho you may be covered by a private Insurance plan, the fact is that you, like all of us, are quite underinsured. Should something catastrophic happen, the chances of your private Insurance company covering all the bills is extremely remote. Even on a 70/30 plan, which sounds pretty good, pretty decent, if you need chemo-therapy or open-heart surgery, the balance-due on your end to cover those procedures is astronomical.
Because of this, people go bankrupt. As you will see in the statistical posts to follow, some 1/2 of all people who declare bankruptcy every year (approximately 2-million of them) do so because of medical bills they cannot pay.
Let me continue by listing just some of the many reasons:
- Deductibles
- Co-Pays
- Pre-existing conditions
- Denial of benefits/coverage
- Denial of treatment
- 45-million people uninsured due to high cost of private Insurance
- The majority of the rest of the population underinsured, altho they don't realize it
- Private Insurance tied to one's employer, no portability
- Fiscal distress of American businesses
- High percentage of GDP
- Health Care coverage as a 'for-profit business' compromises doctor/patient relationships
- Our money being used to pay outrageous salaries of Insurance Company top-eschalon
- Our money being used to pay Insurance Company share-holders
- Our money being used to pay private Insurance lobbies to keep Health-Care Disbursement in the hands of profiteers.
Is there a Universal Health Care system in place now?
No, there isn't. All health-care in America falls under the umbrella of private Insurers. Since the private Insurance system is a for-profit business, its focus is on making a buck for itself and its shareholders, and this comes at the expense of the very people who not only foot-the-bill (us), but those who are then left to face the denial of benefits, denial of treatment, etc etc. The for-profit private Insurance business bankrupts, and kills, private citizens; has brought business to its knees; left millions without insurance (with the rest of us underinsured); and is bankrupting the nation as a whole.
This is why President Obama is so adamant about Health-Care Reform. And why you are seeing more and more coverage of the debate over this issue reported on the news.
Is there a Universal Health-Care system already developed?
Yes, there is. It's called HR-676. For those of you who don't know, 'HR' stands for 'House Resolution'. HR-676 was written, and introduced, by Representative John Conyers of Michigan some two-years ago. That's right. Two-years ago. Since then, it has been languishing on everyone's desk, at the bottom of their pile, no doubt.
If there's already a plan for Universal Health-Care called HR-676, why haven't I heard about it?
Good question. I'd like to know the answer to that one myself, *lol*
The best I can come up with is that the private Insurance lobby is very, VERY powerful. They don't want a Single-Payer Universal Health-Care System because that means the gravy-train is over for them. They have done, and are doing, everything in their power to keep people from knowing about HR-676. They are, as we speak, spending YOUR MONEY, (that COULD, and SHOULD, go towards paying for your health-care needs), on negative advertsing, propaganda, and lobbying. And, yes, they are powerful enough to apply extreme pressure on the various mainstream televison newscasts, newspapers, and news magazines to not mention HR-676. That's why you haven't heard about HR-676.
And why I started this blog.
