High Cost of Health Care in America

Our health system is in crisis, leaving us with to many people without adequate health insurance, and the costs are astronomical! Today, there are over 45 million Americans without health insurance. Millions of us are struggling to pay health premiums that are growing five times faster than the wages we are receiving, and we still are seeing our benefits shrinking. While some of us have access to the best medical care in the world, others of us are left to overcrowded emergency rooms, under funded clinics, or just no health care at all, because we lack health insurance. In a wealthy country such as ours, this problem should be corrected.

High Cost of Health Care in America

Chapter 1

Americans Health Care

After researching about health care I ran into a few stories about real people facing real problems with our health care system, including the Medicare system. Nancy facing breast cancer and counting on health insurance from her husband's employer finds out she will not be able to receive insurance from her husband's job, because he lost his job that month. Nancy was unable to work, so she applied for Medicaid and was approved. In order for her to be able to keep the Medicaid, her husband had to remain unemployed. Nancy then applied for Social Security Disability and had to wait seven to eight months for the approval, but she did get it, only to find out she could not use it for 24 months, this meant that her husband would have to remain unemployed until Medicare kicked in. It is situations like this that make me wonder what is going on, that a person who is in dire need of medical help would have to postpone medical treatment putting her health on the line because of a waiting period. It seems to me that if Nancy is applying for SSDI, she needs it right away. If we have to wait two years for medical insurance we could end up dead.

Chapter 2

Cost of Health Care

This is a survey from USA Today that examines how Americans are being affected by health care costs. The Health Care Cost Survey is based on 1,531 adults. The survey was conducted in the months of April 25 to June 9, 2005. http://www.kff.org/newsmedia/pomr090105pkg.cfm.

As I stated above, with the high cost of health insurance its wonder that we all aren't on Medicare. If we didn't have employers to pay some of our health care cost, most people would not be able to afford it. In the small town of Alpena, Michigan, where I live, at "least half of the people here rely on Medicare" thru our Social Services Office. There are mostly minimum wage jobs here for the people and many jobs are part time. People I have interviewed are able to go to the doctor for check ups and to the ER room if needed for medical help. They seem to believe that this does not cost them: It's just the State Of Michigan flipping the bill, they think. Recently I visited the Blue Cross Office in Alpena, Michigan and ask about health insurance coverage on behalf of my employee Sue. The prices were astronomical! The different plans that they have often do not include any drug coverage; and the deductibles rose to $2500.00 just to have a policy she could afford. The insurance policy cost $190.00 a month, but it only paid 70 percent of the bill until the deductible is met. This means that Sue making $6.00 an hour, taking home $220.00 a week, $953.00 a month, would end up paying $190.00 for the basic policy, $50.00 for an office visit, and about $75.00 for prescription drugs. This would leave only $638.00 a month to pay rent, buy food, pay car insurance, and hope to hell that she did not have any other bills to pay. I think it is time for a National Health Care program because with these kinds of prices, it's no wonder we can't afford our own health care and even if we could, we would still have medical bills to pay. In comparison to other developed nations like France, Germany, Norway, and Canada the USA is lagging behind in its providing good quality healthcare for its citizens. The extreme anxiety over lack of healthcare coverage makes All Americans less healthy.

Chapter 3

Drug Companies Helping with The High Cost Of Medicines

Millions of Americans without insurance or prescription medicines, now Pfizer and other drug companies are ready to help. (http://www.pfizerhelpfulanswers.com/)

I think it is great now that the drug companies have made their billions they say they are willing to help us with our high cost of drugs. They should help right? They made them even when we couldn't afford them, but somehow we managed to buy them, even people like my mother and other senior citizens who are on a limited income. They go without food and better housing just so they can afford their medicines.

I went to http://www.merckhelps.com and filled out the information they needed to see how much they would help with buying my drugs. I gave them my income and social security number and all the other health information just to find out they would give me a discount card which provides 10 to 40 percent off on my prescription drugs. That seems great; except when I went to my pharmacy, I had to choose which discount card to use. I couldn't use my Merck card and my AARP card together. So am I really saving anything? I am no expert on drug companies but hearing the stories from some friends I have, that work in our local hospital, it's amazing all of the elderly patients that come into the ER sick because they could not afford their medicines, and hope that they can get them free from our ER. President Bush was supposed to have a prescription plan! What happened to it? And will it really work? Many think not. Take time to read these stories, our heath depends on it! Our health is at risk.

References

(n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2005, from http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Health_Care/Pharmaceuticals/

(Nancy Esslinger, 2004) Esslinger, Nancy (2004). : . Retrieved November 1, 2005, from http://www.americansforhealthcare.org