Health Care For People Who Can't Pay
Posted By: Steven Lipstein 
Date Posted: October 21st, 2009 Category: Health Care Reform
As I read over many of the comments below, there is good discussion about how our health care system should think about providing health care for people who either do not have health insurance or who are otherwise unable to afford the cost of the health care services they need.
I think it would help the conversation for everyone to appreciate that even when health care is provided free of charge to an individual in need, it still costs money to provide those services. Where does that money come from? It comes from you – the taxpayer, or it comes from you – the payer of health insurance premiums.
Payments to doctors and hospitals and other health care professionals comes from two primary sources: payments from Medicare & Medicaid (which are your tax dollars) and payments from health insurance companies (which are your health insurance premiums).
When doctors and hospitals provide care to those who are unable to pay, we recoup the cost of that care from those who are able to pay, either with their tax dollars or their health insurance premiums.
As we consider the best ways for our nation to assure health insurance coverage for all its citizens, it is important to keep in mind that, today, there are already costs associated with the care of those without coverage, and that cost is covered by your current tax dollars and your current health insurance premiums. It is possible that both may go up as a result of health care reform, and it is also possible that the reverse is true – by covering all of our citizens, we enlarge the insurance risk pool so that costs are spead across more people, lowering the premiums for all. It is hard to predict what will happen, but the way I think about it, let’s guarantee access to health insurance coverage for all people living in the United States, let’s preserve their choices of doctors and hospitals and insuarnce plans, and let’s work together to make these guarantees and choices affordable.
Comment By: Rebekah
Date & Time: October 22, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I agree, and I think that this point is often missed when people discuss the costs of healthcare reform. The "why should I pay for someone else?" argument is really a moot point when we consider that the insured already pay for the uninsured, in a roundabout way.
There are some people who CHOOSE to be uninsured, and yes, it does bug me a bit when they get their healthcare out of my tax dollars and premiums and they choose not to contribute. And there are some people who CANNOT get insurance for various reasons like pre-existing conditions, punitive costs, etc. Those are the ones who need our help. Those are the ones who need a system in place that will ensure that they will receive the same quality of care that I do.