On Facebook today, there has been an update string stating, more or less "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day." There have been a few variations such as "No one should die because drug companies need to suck up to politicians, rather than develop new drugs for the free market. No one should die because an official panel decides you're too old to be worth treating. If you agree, please post this as your status for the next 24 hours" from free-market type people or "No one should die because they cannot afford a Big Mac, and no one should go broke because they want fries with it. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day" or "No one should go dry because they cannot afford beer, and no one should go broke because they drink. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day" from people with a sense of humor, but the first post has been the main variation.
Of course, Facebook being Facebook, people are commenting on the status of those who post the first status update. However, as everyone reading and writing the comments is a friend of the status poster (or a friend of a friend) the debate has been fairly polite, even when posters are blasting each other's position. One person opinioned that no one is going to die because they cannot afford health coverage as all states already have a "welfare" system in place for those that can't afford it, and under EMTALA, emergency rooms must stabilize any patient that walks in the door regardless of coverage or citizenship. It was then pointed out that we the insured already pay for the uninsured through higher taxes to cover the uninsured and/or through higher costs we pay in insurance premiums and medical bills. If you ever get sick and look at your hospital bill and see you have been charged a small fortune for a band-aid (I wish I had my mother's last hospital bill handy) you will see we (through higher payments to our insurance companies) are already paying for the welfare for the uninsured. Another thread focused on how how some people have trouble paying whatever deductible they must pay before insurance kicks in and are forced to the emergency room for health care which is a pretty expensive way to go. Under my current plan, I go to the doctor and pay my somewhat reasonable co-pay and that is it, whether it is the first time I'm seeing him or the tenth (easy to do with kids). Now I can afford to pay the $75-100 (or whatever the cost of the office visit is) if I had to pay $X before insurance kicked in, but some can not. Those are the ones who can't afford health care. And I'm not talking about people with Dish TV, I'm talking about people who decide between heat or eat in winter.
Another person essayed "the problem is none of us (unless we're over 65) really have insurance. We are just led to believe we do. ... Let's imagine, despite exercising and eating right, you got cancer. No problem - you have insurance through your employer. Except you get too sick to continue working, and have to go on disability. You no longer have insurance through your employer and you are out on the open market. Except you have a pre-existing condition. You can get coverage, except not for what is making you sick, or you can pay astronomically for it. And remember - you are no longer able to work. What do you do next?"
Other posts were more touching. I had one uninsured friend remind me when he had to go to the hospital with a bad pain in his side a few weeks ago it cost almost $6,000 out of pocket. And of course I had my mother who had insurance (good insurance at as she was a retired teacher) and still had a medical bankruptcy at age 65. She lost her home and would have been in a nursing home a decade earlier than she went if she didn't have children who could help her out and pay for assisted living.
It's a mess all over and I'm not sure government can fix it. But what we have now is just a house of cards slowly collapsing on all of us one card at a time. I'm more of a fiscal conservative than a liberal and think the current situation is pretty lousy financially. I really don't care if an illegal immigrant, for example, gets free medical care for a dollar of my tax money if it means I don't have to pay $10 in extra insurance premiums to cover their ER visits due to EMTALA. However, while I don't trust the insurance companies to put health before profit, I don't think government is the complete answer either (I have sneaking suspicion there will be a bureaucratic nightmare when some entity tries to determine who does and does not have insurance and needs to pay a "fine"). Personally, I just want whatever is more efficient and costs less. If that is the government, then the private insurers can match. If it is the private insurers, after some streamlining and whatever else that they need to do to bring down costs and meet whatever minimal standards are set up, then they can do it. We are fortunate that we live in a time and in a country rich enough that can do this, if we want to. One thing I am pretty sure of though -- I'm not retiring to California.
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