Sunday 15 September 2013

U.S. needs single plan for health insurance

Pity patients like Bev Veals who are trying to juggle chemotherapy while paying bills that their insurance plans were supposed to cover ("Patient’s bill soars as new program falters," Sept. 10). Her story resonated with me, since I had the same problem when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2008.

As the Jan. 1 transition date to new insurance marketplaces moves closer, how many more patients like Veals will be hit with bills they can’t pay at a time when they are too ill to work? In no other developed country in the world would a situation like this happen, yet in the U.S. it happens all the time. It’s why medical bills are the primary cause of personal bankruptcies in our country.

Because of the way our newly minted national health insurance plan is structured — in piecemeal fashion, with different plans for different segments of the population — stories like Veals’ will continue to emerge. And in states like Missouri, where we’ve failed to expand Medicaid — a huge piece needed to work the Obamacare puzzle — I shudder to think what will happen when otherwise-healthy and active 49-year-olds like Veals develop cancer or other life-threatening diseases.

I guess Winston Churchill was right when he said that Americans always do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else. When are we going to join the rest of the world and institute a single plan for health insurance that covers everyone, a plan that costs far less than we’re spending now, and in which no one receives a bill for medical services?




Source: Stltoday.com

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