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What You Can Do About
America’s Health Care Crisis
 If
you haven’t heard about problems with the health care crisis
in the US, you haven’t been paying attention. The US spends
over four times as much on health care as it does on defense
spending!
Health insurance and cost for medical treatment are escalating
faster than any other segment of the economy. It has everyone
worried: employers, employees, retirees, and politicians.
Who Provides Health
Insurance?
The Government
If you work for the
government, including as a member of the military, you’re
covered, along with 39 million others who depend on the government
for health care. It is sometimes easy to forget that someone
does pay for all that care. Remember that government has only
two sources of income: (1) taxpayers and (2) loans that put
the country further in debt. Each Congressman has seven of his
or her very own lobbyists from the pharmaceutical industry and
medical providers’ lobbies like the AMA. Basically, it’s
the lobbyists’ job to keep prices high and to prevent the
passage of universal health care—or even improvements in
the current systems. (Of course, members of the Congress are
government employees. They have full-coverage insurance for
themselves and their families that continues even after they
leave office.
Employers
Health insurance is
cited as one of the biggest worries for businesses large and
small. Even though employees usually pay a portion of the premium
through payroll deduction, the portion that employers pay is
many times that. We’ve said that health insurance costs
are rising—but that’s a bit of an understatement.
In 2006 alone, small employers’ premiums rose by 8.8 percent,
and companies with less than 24 employees saw an increase of
over 10%.
 Many,
though by no means all, private employers offer health insurance
to employees. The problem is that not everyone can afford to
pay the premium, usually several hundred dollars a month. The
average annual premium charged by insurers for family coverage
averaged $11,500 in 2006. Employees paid out almost $3,000 of
that, amounting to 10 percent more than in the previous year.
A full-time, minimum-wage employee makes just over $10,000 a
year, meaning that the total premium for health insurance coverage
was more than the worker’s annual wage. According to the
National Coalition on Health Care, employee's insurance premiums
increased by 73% from 2000-2005. Inflation over that same period
was 14%. Wages rose 15%. Premiums are skyrocketing to the point
that they’re close to going into orbit! Then there are
annual deductibles and co-pays, amounts that employees pay when
they seek care. Employers choose higher-deductible plans for
their employees to cut the premium cost—sort of like increasing
the deductible for your collision and comprehensive coverage
on your auto insurance to lower the premium.
It’s easy to find yourself in a medical-expense bind even
if you have health insurance. You have to really understand
how your policy works, and it seems that insurers keep changing
things without warning. First you need a Primary Care Physician,
then you don’t. You didn’t used to need a referral
to see a specialist, but now you do. You’ve got to stay
in the network of providers, or you won’t be covered. Hospital
stays must be pre-approved—so let’s hope the ambulance
driver can find your insurance card in your wallet or purse
in case you’re unconscious. There are tales of people who
took a loved one to the hospital in an emergency, only to be
denied coverage because the hospital wasn’t in the network.
Then there are
“the uninsured.”
As of October, 2006,
over 46 million Americans were uninsured. We’re not talking
about deadbeats, either. The vast majority of the uninsured
are working people with families. They may not be offered insurance
through their employer, or they cannot afford the premiums.
Many self-employed people are uninsured, and the astronomical
premiums for individual insurance put them off the playing field
all together—or pre-existing conditions prevent them from
getting insurance that will cover them for the very conditions
they will most likely need care for.
When the uninsured do
see a doctor, it is usually due to a life-threatening emergency
or because something like a cold or the flu has spiraled into
pneumonia or bronchitis so bad that they have no choice. For
the most part, uninsured people who get sick simply hope they
will get better. If they don’t, they finally go to the
emergency room, where bills are so high it seems there must
be a mistake. (A thousand dollars to stitch up a cut? You must
be kidding!) If you can’t pay, the hospital will continue
to hound you to collect. It could affect your credit rating
if you don’t make a stab at paying off the bill.
What You Can Do
 Make
a Decision.
You can decide you’ll trust that the government or your
employer will cover increasing costs or that your share of
the premium won’t go through the roof. Your other choice
is to go uninsured, hoping you and your family will stay well.
Either way, it’s up to you to make a choice.
- Emergency Medical
Accounts
More and more workers are making the choice to set up medical
savings accounts. They take the money they would have paid
in insurance premiums, and instead deposit it in an interest-bearing
account, CD, or other "sure money" account. If the
funds are not needed for medical expenses, they are way ahead
of the game.
- Funding Medical
Savings Accounts
If you decide to go the medical-savings-account route, you
will want o get as much money as you can into the account
as soon as possible. You would do well to find a second source
of income to generate quick cash for your MSA. Many people
have found that a home-based business is a very effective
way to get the cash rolling into their MSAs, with money to
spare.
You don’t have to quit your regular job. Instead, you
work when you want to, steadily accumulating money for your
emergency account. It’s quite likely you’ll find
out you have extra money left over for another account or
two-- "things we've always wanted" or "savings
for trips."
A home-based business may very well be your personal answer
to the health care crisis.
For additional free information, simply fill in the
form below.
Sue DeBrule
1-800-606-0613
Email
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