If you are an insurance carrier and want to profit from providing coverage to consumers you cannot be selective and only offer coverage to the healthy and exclude the unhealthy or riskier consumers. This is not insurance, it is profit taking! Make health insurance mandatory (except for those that qualify for government assistance).
Our government needs to subsidize for basic healthcare for those of us that cannot truly afford health coverage. Nevertheless, I listen to the objections that making health insurance mandatory violates our democracy's principles and that it takes away our right to choose. Well to an extent this is true, and at the same time it is not. Our society today bears the burden of those that do not have health insurance to a large extent.
If an individual is so ill that their life is in jeopardy, hospitals are required by law to administer care until their health is out of danger. So we are still all paying for those that do not carry health insurance. Yes, an individual without health insurance doesn't receive the same care as someone with health insurance, but they do receive some care. More so, this type of care is realistically more expensive, since it is usually through emergency services at the hospitals and since the overall health of these individuals has deteriorated and worsened by the time they seek hospital assistance. Maintaining health insurance is a responsibility as much as a right and attempting to maintain our health is our responsibility to each other.
Healthcare as a whole, and for that matter health insurance as an industry, is in our society quite complex even for the highly educated. To really understand healthcare we must separate its components, separate its objectives, and understand how these are perceived by our society. The components are the providers, patients, administrators, regulators, capitalists, and politicians. They all play a role and their objectives many times clash with one another. Nevertheless, let's start with the two most important components; providers and patients. The conversation has to start and also end here. Their objectives are:
1. Basic healthcare (routine doctor visits, check-ups, tests, minor ailments, preventative care, and disease management). These are services that are routine in nature and occur more frequently. A large part of our dilemma today is that patients do not receive these services as much as they should. If it were, these would avoid many complications of illnesses and would assist greatly in reducing higher healthcare costs.
2. Catastrophic care (unforeseen disease, accidents, and major illnesses, etc.) These are services and care that are more costly and that are difficult to predict the "who, what, when, and where." They are truly the reason for insurance in the first place, the risk we need to all share to protect one another. Now, if only it were as simple as it may appear to be explained in the paragraph above. The reality is that it is not.
This is only part of the reason of why Hispanics represent such a high percentage of uninsured's. They feel disconnected, confused, and basically as outsiders in the large and complex maze that is our healthcare system. Just as important, is that our healthcare industry has combined Hispanics as a one-fit-all demographic and it is not. Although we share many factors that bind us together as a group, there also many differences and preferences that make us unique. Our healthcare industry has failed to tap into these differences and market to them differently. In addition, there are economic issues that Hispanics face that make their access to healthcare more difficult.
It is sad and frustrating that this has not been addressed with as much fervor as it deserves. Hispanics today play a large role within our society and many struggle to make ends meet, without being able to afford and attain quality healthcare. There are many, many challenges ahead, yet we must fight to conquer this soon. As healthcare reform is being discussed in the halls of Congress, the largest group of uninsured's awaits some answers and deservedly so. Yet, although some level of government assistance is needed, Hispanics do not want handouts, socialized medicine, or a public government run insurance plan. They want simple and fair rules for everyone.
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