Could Universal Health Care be the Answer?

Patients of different backgrounds and ethnic groups come to the emergency room with so many complications that, if caught early, can be prevented. These complications include but are not limited to diabetics who have to undergo surgical procedures for lower limb amputations due to poor circulation, patients suffering from hypercholesterolemia who die from cerebro-vascular disease and the list goes on. These patients clog emergency rooms across this country because they have no health care and are forced to wait until they are literally on their death bed to check into an emergency room only to find out that it may be too late. Adding insult to injury these stories are more prevalent in public hospitals. This means that the cost of these high risk operations that could’ve been easily avoided is paid by the citizens of this great country. The truth is that with proper primary care intervention health care costs would be way down and massive surgeries and expensive procedures would be so low that they would seem like an obscurity as opposed to how it is seen today, the norm. In the past I would never expect politicians to do much about this problem but this problem has never been what it is today! There are approximately 47 million Americans without health insurance! That is an atrocity that should not be present in the richest and most powerful nation in the world.

The issue is America’s health; the solution to this growing problem is to institute a universal health care system. Many of those opposed to universal health care have no idea what it means and how it will benefit every American. It is clear that the biggest concern for those in favor of private insurance, particularly the health insurance companies, are afraid that our capitalist society would be forsaking them. However, the truth is that we can have private health insurance in accordance with UHC. I propose the coexistence by creating a new federal government insurance program, the United States Insurance Plan (USIP). This plan would be just like the others only differing in the ownership. This insurance company would create millions of jobs and would cover millions of people. The opposition to such a proposal would be a decrease in quality health insurance. I swear to you that the simple implementation of a universal health care plan would not be the sole cause of depreciating health care quality.

I recently attended an event where primary care physicians voiced their grievances about the problems facing them when it comes to seeing publicly funded patients (those who receive Medicaid). These physicians, voice a complaint that Medicaid pays little for the patients they cover. For example, if a patient with diabetes is seen who is covered by private insurance they may receive $100 for the visit while a patient with the same ailments covered by Medicaid would net the physician a whopping $20! Physicians see this as disrespect. It may seem like doctors are unreasonable in their costs per patient but the truth is that many primary care physicians are fighting to make ends meet due to their own student loans, medical malpractice insurance, and whole host of other costs. The quality health care offered to patients with publicly insured patients already declining because many doctors refuse to take Medicaid because of the reasons previously mentioned.

So the question is “wouldn’t this be worsened by the implementation of universal health care?” The solution to the problem is for the government UHC that I propose is to pay physicians a fee that is comparable to private insurance. Physicians will gladly take a publicly insured patient because it is financially worth it. We must remember that although the primary purpose of physicians is to heal the sick, they too have to survive and with the constant rise in malpractice insurance due to frivolous law suits, it has become difficult to practice medicine and survive. Just a thought!