"Rather than ensuring everybody has health INSURANCE, why aren't we focusing on reducing the cost of health CARE?"
Ya know, I've always wondered that. I think that if health care was affordable to the "average" person, more people would have health insurance cause it wouldn't be that big of a burden to provide it to everyone.
Giving everyone health insurance *would* lower the cost of healthcare. If you've got insurance, you can afford to go to the doctor for annual checkups and preventive care, catching health issues more quickly when they're still easily treatable.
Say you stub your toe and it gets infected. With insurance, you go to the doc, pay a $20 copay, and get a $20 prescription for antibiotics. Your insurance company pays another $100, which you've already given them in premiums that year. Without insurance, maybe the infection gets worse, you put it off until it's too painful to ignore, you go to the emergency room, where it'll cost you at least $1000 to walk in the door. Maybe it's gangrene, or MRSA, maybe they have to amputate, maybe your bill ends up being $20k, $50k, $100k. All for the want of health insurance and a broad spectrum antibiotic.
Extreme example, yes, but does it make sense now on how the two are interrelated?
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Ya know, I've always wondered that. I think that if health care was affordable to the "average" person, more people would have health insurance cause it wouldn't be that big of a burden to provide it to everyone.
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Say you stub your toe and it gets infected. With insurance, you go to the doc, pay a $20 copay, and get a $20 prescription for antibiotics. Your insurance company pays another $100, which you've already given them in premiums that year. Without insurance, maybe the infection gets worse, you put it off until it's too painful to ignore, you go to the emergency room, where it'll cost you at least $1000 to walk in the door. Maybe it's gangrene, or MRSA, maybe they have to amputate, maybe your bill ends up being $20k, $50k, $100k. All for the want of health insurance and a broad spectrum antibiotic.
Extreme example, yes, but does it make sense now on how the two are interrelated?
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* Drug costs.
* Lawsuits
* High costs passed on to other consumers
The third is addressed by making sure everyone has access to primary care.
How do we tackle the other two?
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