Individuals Without Health Insurance, Essay Example

There are many problems in the United States today; however, one of the largest problems is the amount of individuals who do not have health care coverage. Many of these individuals are ill or hurting in some way and are not going to the hospital or to doctors due to the fact that it costs way too much to do so without insurance. They are continuing to suffer in agony because nothing has been done to provide them with the coverage at a cost that they can afford on top of living in our society today. This problem affects more and more people every day as young adults are dropped from their parent’s insurance due to age, employers not providing insurance at the individual’s current place of employment, or because the insurance premiums are not affordable for individuals who are not covered by their employer’s insurance coverage. An interview was conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention that explains the number and percentage of individuals without insurance coverage during the time of the interview. For individuals under the age of 65, 45.2 million people were uninsured with a percentage of 16.9%, 6.6% of children under the age of 18 were uninsured, and 20.9% of adults ages 18 to 64 were uninsured (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). It is clear to see why this problem needs a solution: there are too many people without health insurance. The best solution for this is for insurance companies to provide coverage that is affordable for all by lowering their premiums and by using other alternatives to do so as well as companies providing insurance to their employees by offering health savings plans, lower premiums, and collaborating with each other.

Senator Ron Johnson, during the Republican national address on November 17th, stated the following:

Throughout the health care debate, Republicans have proposed dozens of solutions designed to help control costs and improve quality – without surrendering control of your personal health care decisions to nameless bureaucrats in Washington (n.p.).

Some of these solutions include allowing insurance companies to sell policies across state lines, health savings plans and allowing trade associations and small businesses to purchase insurance as a group, according to Ron Johnson. Some believe this would help while others believe it would not. It would allow for healthier people to receive lower premiums, but would not help those who are sick as much as this would raise the cost of their insurance (Johnson). However, this could be helpful if insurance companies could figure out a way to keep the premiums down for all individuals. Health savings plans are another option. These plans help individuals pay for health care when it is needed most and many companies already have these programs in place in order to try to help. Finally, Johnson says that allowing trade associations and small businesses to purchase insurance as a group would help those who do not have insurance. By buying as a group, it would lower the premiums for their employees. By using all of these options, the uninsured would be able to save money, companies would gain more clients, and the uninsured would learn how to save for medical emergencies.

According to Ruth Marcus, there are other alternative solutions to creating a better health care system and helping the uninsured. One of these is to “promote privately negotiated payment rates within global spending targets” (Marcus, n.p.). Another of these is to accelerate the use of alternatives to fee-for-service payment. By doing this, physicians and hospitals would be able to only receive a fixed payment from the individual. This is called a bundled payment (Marcus). Another alternative is to “use competitive bidding for all health care commodities” (Marcus, n.p.). This would help because the government would no longer be able to set the prices for health care commodities. Bidding would start with manufacturers and suppliers and they would be able to compete for the lowest price in which would help professionals and the patients (Marcus). Finally, Marcus suggests tiered insurance plans to be put into place. “Tiered insurance plans designate a tier of providers with high quality and low costs, and reduce cost-sharing for patients who choose these high-value providers” (Marcus, n.p.). This would help the uninsured as it would help lower costs for in-patient services and may provide them the opportunity to get medical insurance. Many are saying wonderful things about Marcus’s alternatives. For example, David Cutler of the Center for American Progress states that “this set of proposals offers a real way forward, away from the stale debates that have consumed so much policymaking” (Marcus, n.p.). In addition, Joshua Sharfstein, the Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene, states that “these ideas represent a look down the field to a health care system that controls costs and improves health at the same time” (Marcus, n.p.).

Finally, collaboration is one of the most important aspects of being able to solve the problems for the uninsured. According to John A. Kitzhaber, M.D., “effective collaborations involve a process through which citizens, providers, advocates, government officials, and other stakeholders explore obstacles, differences, and alternative strategies for improving access to health care” (p. 2). Access barriers (such as age, race, and gender) are the largest problems when it comes to people being able to obtain insurance either individually or through their own employers. These individuals suffer tremendously without insurance and the only way to fix this is through collaboration and team work from every individual that can make a difference. Kitzhaber states the following in reference to the major problems when individuals do not have insurance:

Individuals suffer preventable illness, pain, complications, bankruptcy, family disruptions, job loss, disability, and even premature death. Others pay, too. Infection rates increase, public health and safety are compromised, children miss school, adults miss work, productivity drops, crime and homelessness increase, social agencies are drained (p. 3).

This is a terrible problem, but it can be fixed with collaboration from individuals who are willing to help. However, in order for collaboration to work properly, some things need to be put into place. There have to be adequate resources, proper framing of the work to be done by each individual or each group, and participation of people with other necessary resources just to name a few (Kitzhaber).

Unfortunately, there are problems with the solutions, just as there are problems with everything. Some uninsured individuals do not have the funds or the leeway to put money away from each of their paychecks for medical emergencies. They are living paycheck to paycheck and every little bit helps. In addition, while collaboration is a great idea, it certainly has to be taken upon by individuals that want to help and can help. Collaboration has to be wanted by all and this could be a problem. Some people don’t want to collaborate and make things better. They just want to raise prices and hope that people will pay the premiums. This is not how it should work. However, through collaboration, each of the solutions could be put together and used in order to help create a better health care system that will allow individuals to purchase insurance at low costs (using the tiered insurance plans) and help them understand the importance of health saving plans if they are able to put just a little bit away each paycheck.

In conclusion, the problem of individuals without insurance can be solved. It may take time and a lot of work, however, it is possible. If companies take the time to allow insurance companies to sell policies across state lines, individuals to learn to create health savings plans and the government to allow trade associations and small businesses to purchase insurance as a group many individuals without insurance at this time could possibly have it in the future. In addition, collaboration is of most importance. Without collaboration, it will be difficult for anything to change. Individuals have to want to work together to make a change. Professionals, patients, government, companies, and volunteers (or non-profit organizations) need to be able to work with one another to fix the problem by either lowering payments or lowering premiums so that each individual can afford to have the insurance they deserve.

Works Cited

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “FastStats.” Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 28 Feb 2014. Web. 20 Mar 2014.

Johnson, Ron. “Republicans Have Proposed Many Solutions to Control Health Care Costs and Improve Quality.” Weekly Republican Address. 17 Nov 2013. Address.

Kitzhaber, John. Improving Health Care Access: Finding Solutions in a Time of Crisis. National Policy Consensus Center, n.d. Web. 20 Mar 2014. <www.policyconsensus.org>.

Marcus, Ruth. Cutting Health Care Costs: Leading Experts Propose Bold Solutions. Center for  American Progress, 02 Aug 2012. Web. 20 Mar 2014.