Texas has the second largest population of non insured citizens in the U.S., and Obama’s health plan will insure thousands of Texas children.
But many opponents of the health plan fear the plan will push the nation closer to socialism. The universal health insurance is sure to raise taxes, put a strain on medical facilities and hinder medical research, opponents say.
“The public health care system will mimic the health care that the U.S. army receives,” UH economist Richard Bean said. “The patients will be just numbers and quality will go down.”
Health care is not getting the radical make over that the Republican party lead people to believe.
“The only portion of the Obama plan that is universal is the children’s insurance,” UH economist Elaine Liu said.
Under Obama’s plan if people like their Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas or United Healthcare they can keep the private insurance and just pay lower premiums.
If someone can’t afford the private health insurance, then he or she can opt for the government insurance that will come at a lower premium. Or people can choose not to have health insurance.
Rising health care cost make not having a health plan risky. A patient will spend about $40,000 a year to treat Type 2 diabetes according to the National Institute of Health.
There are three main reasons medical treatment is so expensive: technology changes, insurance companies and law suits.
Technology can bring down cost in many industries. Most people carry a cellphone, have Internet access and satellite television because the technology made it more affordable.
Technology raises prices in the medical industry. The high input cost of better technology such as better imaging or more efficient X-Rays make practicing medicine more costly to the doctor, and make treatment more costly to the patient.
Also insurance companies can wait six months to pay a claim. Doctors only get the co-payment for the services rendered until the insurance company pays. That might be $10 for a $150 service.
Employers don’t expect their employees to work for six months with out pay, but the insurance companies expect doctors to wait six months while they review the claim. Then doctors off set the cost by raising prices and this affects cash paying patients.
Then there are the frivolous law suits that people file in the name of mal-practice. Now, there are people who have been hurt by treatment from a doctor, and they have the right to sue. Doctors also have insurance to protect them if they mess up, but they only want to be sued zero amount of times.
This is why doctors pratice defensive medicine. They run a lot of test to make sure they have the right diagnosis, when they only needed to run one or two. This increases lab time and time spent analyzing the results. The more time a doctor spends on a case, the more cost increases.
Our lives have improved with the advancements made to health care, and those advancements can continue only if there are pay-offs to the companies financing them. If we stop any insentives than we run the risk of stopping all progress.
