About 75 million Americans did not have health insurance at some time during 2001 or 2002. This lack of health insurance, which is cutting further into the middle class, is a problem not only for the uninsured but for the rest of the population as well.
A large number of uninsured people in a community can affect the availability of medical care for everyone, according to an Institute of Medicine study. Providing uncompensated medical care can put a severe financial strain on a community, leading to cuts in other programs such as preventive medicine and surveillance.
A separate study found that of the 75 million uninsured mentioned above, nearly 65 percent were uninsured for at least six months and 24 percent were uninsured for the entire two years.
The slow economy and rising health costs, which are causing businesses to scale back coverage or put more of the costs on employees, are contributing to the large numbers of uninsured, according to the previous study. Further, states are trimming their programs for poor and low-income residents. Moreover, it is likely that with current economic conditions, including unemployment and budget shortfalls, the number of uninsured will continue to grow.
Additionally, public funds that pay for uncompensated medical care are often not allocated or targeted efficiently, according to the study. Numerous cities have had to reallocate funds from other programs to pay for the medical care, while others have had to close health facilities or convert them from public to for-profit operations due partly to financial burdens.
People without health insurance don't get routine preventive health services, receive too little medical care too late, are sicker and die sooner, and receive poorer care when they are hospitalized.
The growing problem of lacking health care coverage in America, coupled with the lack of a foreseeable solution, has led analysts to say that the U.S. health care system is on the verge of collapse.
CNN News March 8, 2003
Institute of Medicine March, 2003 (PDF)
Yes indeed, it is a sad state that we have gotten ourselves into. About 75 million people with no health insurance is a major challenge that affects each and every one of us in some way.
My concern is that some well intentioned individuals, groups, foundations and organizations will be directing their efforts to help these uninsured through the traditional medical paradigm.
This will only make things worse.
If they continue on that path, somewhere down the road there will be even more people who can’t afford health care, because it has gotten even more expensive.
What these well-intentioned groups fail to appreciate is how we got to be in this situation in the first place. We currently spend about $1.5 trillion on health care in the United States each year, and that is expected to double to over $3 trillion in less than 10 years. Worldwide, we spent nearly a half trillion dollars on drugs alone to treat disease.
This spending is absolutely inevitable when you focus on treating symptoms with expensive drug and surgical solutions.
The solution will clearly be to embrace natural approaches that activate the body’s God-given healing systems. People will need to take responsibility for their health and:
Please don’t misunderstand me. There is not a war between traditional and natural medicine. That will never work. What we need is a cooperative merger that can take the best of both worlds.
We will need surgery to repair the traumas we inevitably encounter from living in the modern age, and drugs will likely always be needed to some degree, though it is more than possible to reduce their use by 90 percent to 95 percent.
Ultimately, I suspect the number of uninsured, along with other health issues that are complications from over-reliance on the drug/surgical model, will only worsen. This is bound to happen before the pain becomes severe enough to force those in authority to recognize that the entire system is in desperate need of a radical overhaul.
In some ways this is similar to what occurred in the 9/11 tragedy. It took the loss of thousands of lives to improve our airport security. The improvements were needed all along, but there wasn’t yet enough pain to make the necessary changes take place.
A similar analogy could also be made with alcoholism. Many alcoholics are not motivated to seek help until they are literally in the gutter. For some, even at that point they refuse to change.
Let’s just hope and pray that those who are in responsible positions to facilitate these changes aren’t like the hopeless alcoholic.
Related Articles:
Amount Spent on Drugs Continues to Rise Nearly $3 Trillion Dollars in US Health Spending is Projected Health Care Spending Reaches Unprecedented Amount
Amount Spent on Drugs Continues to Rise
Nearly $3 Trillion Dollars in US Health Spending is Projected
Health Care Spending Reaches Unprecedented Amount