Why the United States Needs to Initiate a National Health Insurance Plan

America is one of the world's wealthiest nations and spends the most on health, an estimated $2.1 trillion in 2006 according to census reports. Yet, there is no centralized health care system for the wealthy and poor which makes it possible for everyone to get the same amount of treatment, access to the most developed technologies, convenience of location, and most reasonable cost for prescriptions. Why is it that one of the most advanced societies can not agree on and pass good and fair health coverage for their country, when politicians are pushing for aid to so many other countries in order to take care of the people living in various parts of the world? There are obvious disparates between the type of care received by those receiving privately funded care and people using public assistance in the services, facilities, and medical products used.

Making health care universal would cut down on several of the current systems inefficiencies and inequities. For the poor, there are delays in seeking health care and a higher usage of emergency medical. Research has shown that uninsured patients weren't as likely to seek care following an accidental injury or that from a chronic illness. These same people don't receive as much follow up care. The American Cancer Society has found that the poor lacking private insurance had a higher occurrence of late stage cancers. This proves that those without insurance or who have Medicaid, are not being treated as well as those with privately funded insurance. Thus creating a cycle of terminal diagnosis and emergency room visits that could have been prevented. Sharing the expense of the uninsured is burdened on providers and tax payers. The treatments available to patients depends on what providers they use. With Medicaid, individuals are limited in which doctors and treatments they can use. This also causes a gap in the quality of the care, and life expectancy. There are also long waiting periods and low quality of coordinated treatment. Government funded health care has limitations, and rules which causes some to be ineligible for Medicaid. Studies of the health care system showed systemic bias and institutional racism. Minorities have been shown to receive less care when it came to a question of whether the latest technologies were more expensive. Government and private program rules result in millions of Americans lacking health coverage, and of those without it, children make up a large number. Approximately 12.9% of total health care costs is for prescriptions just to nurse the underlying problem, which is to provide better preventative care to everyone in the first place.

If the government created a national health care plan, there would be less preventable deaths and i believe less burden on tax payers to help pay for those that are uninsured or under insured. Emergency room visits would decrease because anyone could go to a doctor that they proffered and get the most advanced treatments that they needed. Patients would not have to travel for hundreds of miles in order to go to a doctor that is on the list of available providers. This in itself is counterproductive, if someone can't afford insurance, then how can they afford to spend upwards of $100 on gas just to be able to use Medicaid? There is also the benefit of not being turned down for assistance at a hospital because "you have an out of state medical card, we can't take it." People are denied care consistently because the current Medicaid does not cover nationwide care no matter which hospital you go to or physician you see. Nationwide health insurance should be made to allow anyone who can not afford it or may barely be able to, taking into account current living expenses and debts, pay rate, children, spouses, etc. so that everyone can get the care that should be a basic human right. It's about time that everyone let the government know that we as citizens should all have dependable national health coverage.