Americas Uninsured (Health Insurance)

A blog of one’s own

Uninsured in the United States

Blogging is a relatively modern technology that has helped shape how people communicate. With the encourage of the internet, minority groups have been able to obtain public relieve and attention from their blog posts. The internet has gained mass popularity in the previous 15 years growing at an exponential rate; it allows us to come anyone anywhere at the urge of light. Blogging is principal because the average person can now project their message to millions of people online almost instantly. Blogs have become a key tool for minority groups to net their belief across without spending a lot of money. They have empowered and given a bid to, people without adequate health insurance, and will be able to back more people in the future if the trend of blogging continues.

More than 44.8 Million people in the United States do not have health insurance (Wattenberg). This causes a huge deal of difficulty for the average person living in the United States. The examine is whether or not health insurance is worth the amount of money they will have to use or if they even have the money to utilize on it. They then will gape at the opportunity cost; this is what they will have to give up if they don’t recall health insurance. When struggling to invent this decision they often seek at themselves as healthy and won’t need or can’t afford health insurance. Health insurance costs on average of $10,880 dollars per family, however most companies screen a broad allotment of,this cost, thus making it cost on average $2,713 per year (Appleby). These numbers are staggering for the average family in America who invent only $48,201 per year.

The uninsured in the USA are a seemingly invisible group to political elite and law makers. The plight with Universal healthcare is that it would, in theory, give everyone an equal opportunity at who gets what doctor. In other words there would be no “better” hospital to visit if you were wealthy or had some sort of influence. The documentary Sicko Michael Moore outlines what happens to people without health insurance in the USA, and it also largely covers what happens to people who have health insurance but their view limits how noteworthy care they can receive. The documentary also includes what happens to people who live in countries who have universal healthcare. The documentary was an low bias towards Universal Healthcare, but it outlined many facts. The following quote comes from the Institute of Medicine, was featured in the movie Sicko, and indicates the severity of the US healthcare dilemma.

According to the Institute of Medicine, “lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. Although America leads the world in spending on health care, it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage.” (“Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations”)

This is a scary number of people that die each year from the lack of financial means in the United States. With the institution of Universal Healthcare that number would be down to zero.

The scary facts about United States unusual healthcare system are that the United States Government is doing diminutive in the arrangement of making this number go down. Hillary Clinton, one of the biggest supporters of Universal Healthcare, was bought out by the drug companies and doctors in the create of campaign money. She is the second highest recipient of money from the original healthcare system; thus causing a conundrum (Christensen). How can the government fix the unique scrape when the candidates themselves are in the pockets of the healthcare system and grand drug manufacturers? Most understanding it as a predicament, but do not know the extent of the problem; the healthcare companies are spending more and more money hiring people to fight congress over healthcare plans. In fact, there are 2,084 lobbyist and only 535 members of congress (Mayor).

The uninsured are a mammoth marginalized group in the United States that are not being represented by the government with adequate representation. The drug companies have the most to lose if the United States government adopts universal healthcare. They will lose the most because accurate now they are making their fortune off the novel health insurance concept in the United States. They construct their money off not treating everyone and from their high premiums. The novel Bush administration has been urged by the drug companies to not agree to a universal healthcare system. They offer payouts to high political figures such as George W. Bush himself. This money is unbiased a fragment of the amount of money that these drug companies receive every year from American families.

The uninsured American has no contrivance to argue with the insurance or drug companies over how worthy their care will cost them. To build it simply, they can’t. The following is a quote from Kuro5hin.org which posted this argument about bargaining rights of the uninsured:

“An individual who needs medical care has no bargaining power whatsoever with a hospital. He can either agree to pay whatever he is charged, or he can die. There are no other choices. In some cases, the government will force him to bag medical care – if he is a minor child in a family that does not wish to earn him any for religious or financial reasons, or if he is considered not to be in possession of reason – but he will peaceful be billed. Refusing medical care for a unsafe or fatal condition is something most people won’t do – and may, in fact, be considered evidence of insanity which takes away the patient’s factual to refuse treatment at all. He can’t stride out because the notice seems unreasonable. In some cases negotiation is fruitful, but often it isn’t.”

This following scenario is a valid spot that far too many Americans face who are uninsured. They have no draw to pay off their bill so they can only settle to refuse care instead, often doing this to wait on their families financially. Their bills often pick up so high that if they chose to die, it would be better financially. So are we putting a heed on human life?

Frightened by the chilly shoulder that the U.S. Senate shows the uninsured, I looked into exact life accounts of uninsured persons in the United States and their chilling stories. The following record touched me because it is of a hard working miner named Lenny who worked all his life in unforgiving conditions. He survived a mine fire which killed 91 of his co-workers. This didn’t halt Lenny from returning to work, because after all he had three kids and with his job ample health care. Unfortunately for Lenny he had health care up until the mine he worked for laid everyone off. This left Lenny with serious health problems from working underground for twenty years. He would eventually need medical care; so he applied for a job that offered medical assistance, and the only score was that it took 60 days to go into enact. The following comes from (Sered and Fernandopulle):

“The luck that had made Lenny one of the survivor’s of the 1972 mine fire had bustle out. Only 30 days after he began the job, he fell down onto the pavement in plump cardiac arrest. Paramedics flew him to Spokane, Wash., to a cardiac unit. His recovery was far better than anyone expected, but he was saddled with gigantic medical bills. A year later, he was sent to the hospital for angioplasty and eventually open-heart surgery. The doctors saved his life, but Lenny is detached suffering acute headaches as a result of falling to the pavement when he experienced the initial cardiac arrest. The cardiologist sent him to an otolaryngologist, who then sent him to other specialists for treatments; none has eliminated his headaches.

The bill for his various surgeries, consultations, medications, and treatments is more than $140,000—it might as well be $1 billion in terms of Lenny ever being able to pay it. His sole income at this time is the $400/month pension he receives from the mining company.

The second ending to Lenny’s record is a bit different. Speaking with feeling about the first time he had to ask for public assistance, tears near into his eyes, which seems incongruous for a man who went support down into the mine as soon as the smoke from the deadly fire had cleared out. “We have worked all of our lives, even went to work sick,” Lenny says. And now, instead of the dignity of automatic access to care, he depends on the golden heart of the county indigent assistance program.”

Lenny’s case is not an isolated one by any means; many people are uninsured and part similar stories about how the flaws of the recent healthcare system.

Recently the blogging phenomenon has allowed many people with internet access to be able to fragment their healthcare stories with the world. Many people who can’t afford insurance can’t afford the cost of high race internet which is required in order to blog. However, many public libraries offer this service and this allows many to have a converse when they wouldn’t previously. Healthinsuranceblog.com offers many different facts about the benefits of healthcare and what could happen if you don’t have it. The blog does not give right life accounts of people who are uninsured, but they relieve raise awareness of what it means to not have insurance. The blog brings up a proper point about why Universal Healthcare in the United States is unlikely, we don’t have the money to provide healthcare for everyone. The government currently does not have the allocated funds to mask insurance for everyone. With a tax it might be able to afford healthcare, but currently there is not enough money. Over 55% of the uninsured don’t pay taxes (healthinsuranceblog) and there would have to be higher taxes for everyone while only some people encourage. Health Insurance Blog is a political blog that outlines what the upcoming presidential candidates serve for health care.

Healthcare is often a matter of life and death for many. Without health insurance, the uninsured cannot afford routine doctors visits so if there is something scandalous with them it is not detected until it’s too leisurely. Most of the illness that people gather can be easily treated with noble care, but since most people panic the cost of a doctors or hospital visit they are left untreated.

Uninsured persons employ political candidates to aid glean their message to the public about how indispensable their situations are. On the website healthinsuranceblog.com the democratic author talked about how politicians are getting the public aware of what it is like to be uninsured:

“In the Democratic Party primaries of 1988, for example, candidate Michael Dukakis talked about a young single mother who had two jobs and mild could not afford medical insurance for herself and her children. In 1992, Bill Clinton did the same, changing the tale only slightly. This time it was the case of a woman with diabetes who could not accept health insurance because of her chronic condition. And now, in the 2008 primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton (whom I worked with on the White House Health Care Reform Task Force in 1993) describes a similar case. This time it is a single woman, with two daughters, who cannot pay her medical bills because her congenital heart defect makes it impossible for her to get medical insurance coverage. And Barack Obama describes similar cases, with the eloquence that characterizes all of his speeches. He frequently refers to his possess mother, who had cancer and had to wretchedness not only about her illness but about paying her medical bills.”

Healthcare cannot wait considerable longer. Americans are dying every day because they can’t afford to go to win a routine doctors visit or they can’t afford their medication. I looked at the earning of the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline which is one of the larger providers of health insurance, Jean-Pierre Garnier the CEO made $9.4 million dollars last year. How is it fine that many people in the United States are uninsured and can’t afford to glean the serve they need, and the CEO’s of the companies that are denying them affordable healthcare are making a great salary. When people have to work two jobs unprejudiced to be able to afford to pay for their medications, why should insurance and drug companies continue to be making such a expansive profit?

Internet savvy users who happen to be uninsured illustrate their hardships over the internet. Oftentimes, people without healthcare who have problems have a hard time expressing their feelings about their situations because they either can’t afford to utilize the internet or are too frustrated. The internet, along with blogs, has become a tool for people to content their understanding without the censor of mainstream media. Blogs are written by people who have a boom and without an agenda (for the most piece anyway; there are also corporate blogs).

Health care blogs are written by numerous people including, doctors, people without health insurance, and supporters of healthcare for everyone also known as universal healthcare. The commonwealthfund.org is an internet spot that describes stories of people without healthcare and their hardships. The state is made for people to secure awareness of how awful it is to not have healthcare, and even sail down the stereotypes of people without health insurance. One stereotype I old-fashioned to have is that people without health insurance are indolent, and or did not work hard enough to be able to afford it so it was be their fault for not having it. After looking at this residence that gives minorities a thunder, I learned that even college-educated men and woman have a hard time getting health care.

One profile on commonwealthfund.org was of a college graduate named Ryan who had to decide whether or not to regain a job based on income or healthcare. He was a healthy young individual who did not consider he would need healthcare so he decided to consume a job teaching which did not offer satisfactory benefits. Ryan fell down on his apartment stairs and injure his knee, he now has very high hospital bills to pay off. He later had to purchase a job that paid less but offers health benefits. Ryan ended up getting care for his knee in Chili because they did not charge as remarkable and offered equal or better service. The ask I have to ask after reading Ryan’s tale that he told was why should anyone have to resolve between a career or a job that offers health benefits? What happened to what we were told as kids: “we can be anything we want to be? ” The truth is with our fresh conception many Americans are finding themselves working for adequate health service.

Blogs have become an sterling originate of education for people who did not know about what is happening to the uninsured. With the unique popularity of blogs, many are using their swear to disprove celebrated misconceptions about what is it like to not be fully covered by their insurance company when they need care. After reading all the Profiles of the uninsured on commonwealthfund.org I wanted to know more about how we could acquire their stories across to more people. The upcoming election for president has given the most power to the uninsured. The biggest scrape that is being addressed besides the Iraq war is the topic of affordable healthcare for all. The fact is that healthcare is only affordable for the average American making under $50,000 for a family is one that is mostly covered by their employer. But with the economy falling without or petite growth since 2001 has not made it accessible for slight companies to provide healthcare for their employees.

Petite business owners are finding it increasingly difficult to afford the cost of healthcare for employees. Tiny businesses have to deal with high taxes by the government on their income (this number is usually around 35% but can very place by set), this is a high number so the amount of funds left after paying for overhead is very diminutive. The goal of minute business it to expand and grow, but how can they afford to do that with all the costs they have? If healthcare cost less for business owners the economy would follow suit. It would grow, and I dare say we would be out of the recession that we are currently in. There is petite in do of growth in the United States compared to other developing nations.

Universal Healthcare to many Americans is not essential to them because they are already covered; however I am concerned about it because the United States is doing so poorly economically. Blogs have been distinguished in addressing the notify of how remarkable money in being spent by individuals every year. In 2003 1.3 trillion dollars was spent on healthcare by the American people. This is an alarming amount of money that is going to something that is under regulated as far as heed goes. The drug companies and insurance companies are taking a huge allotment of all Americans income each year. Healthcare blogs have played a huge role in getting the public’s attention at this yelp. They often effect issues aware to us that we may not have known about; blogs unlike mainstream media are not censored and do not have a corporate sponsor. Americans who do not have health insurance gather their stories about their hardships on blogs or others write about them on their behalf.

I found a family member in my family who did not have health insurance. I learned last year she had a major operation on her befriend, and I often wondered how she was going to pay for it. I conducted an interview with her and what I found out was disturbing. I have to say I am slightly bias towards this because she is a family member; however it does not create the facts any less chilling.

My Aunt Lisa Herbert is a working class woman who did not effect high school or serve any formal schooling after she dropped out. She got pregnant at the young age of 15 and had her first child at the age of 16. Lisa had a tough life from her teenage years. She had a hard time raising a kid at her age; she went through multiple husbands and boyfriends who would promise to grasp care of her children but left her financially ruined. Lisa’s myth regarding medical insurance starts two years ago in 2006. From all aspects she had a hard life but she wanted to serene perform something of herself, she got a job at a Dunkin Donuts as was promoted mercurial to manager. She was enjoying for the first time in her life financial freedom even if it was small; she had the sense of independence. She went to work honest as she has always done one day in the winter; she fell on the ice leading up to the Dunkin Donuts she worked at. She fractured one her vertebras, however not life threatening, neither were her injuries threatening enough to create her become a paraplegic. However she was unruffled injured. Lisa could not inch or be mobile for over 6 months; now imagine this as she described to me, she was finally becoming financially independent and was proud to become a manager, then after one accident she landed in the hospital. She did not have suitable insurance; she had what Dunkin Donuts provided for her. She was “lucky” in the sense that because she did not have the financial means to sue them. Dunkin Donuts gave her the pay for the 6 months that she was not working. She took this as a gift, but from my point of conception she could have got more out of them if she had money. Lisa then had to pay overwhelming medical bills (the genuine amount was not disclosed) that mounted on her already oppressed location.

Lisa’s sage is not an isolated one or even a rarity in the United States. Many workers who are working either retail or chain restaurants are not making it financially. The rising cost of healthcare that is not provided from the companies that they are working for is overwhelming and often times unaffordable. The blogging community is unbiased starting to prefer up issues of social injustice that is being done to marginalized groups such as the medically uninsured in the United States and giving them a negate. These groups should not be silenced because they do not have enough money to pay for suited care or routine visits.

I want to address one critical articulate that the readers of this paper may be having; I have talked a lot about universal healthcare and how the uninsured need care as well. Many Americans that I have spoken to said that they don’t want unpleasant quality care if we decided to do universal healthcare. I have a personal narrative I want to part to distinct up any confusion with the quality of nonprofit hospitals or hospitals that offer free care. When I was the age of 15 I had a severe flat foot plight, with health insurance that covered nearly 99% of all medical bills my parents had to pay over $3,000 out of pocket for treatment in order to collect custom made orthotics for my feet and other care. They did not work. I ended up going to a hospital in Springfield Massachusetts that offered free orthopedic care to anyone under the age of 18; we did this only because all the “specialists” we visited did not befriend my condition. My doctor I had was the top orthopedic surgeon at the hospital and could rival any at a paying hospital. He suggested a unique treatment for my feet without surgery and gave me free orthotics that actually helped. My family had the money to catch nearly any doctor that would back me however this was the only doctor that knew what he was doing that we visited so far. He was calm paid but by donations (he drove a 7 series BMW so he was getting paid a lot). I believe that Americans that are opposing universal healthcare have a zigzag belief on what it means to not have insurance pay for their care. I want to address one more thing, I found out about this hospital from a healthcare blog (can’t remember which one) which had other patients writing about their care and how they were helped by this hospital.

Universal healthcare to many is something that we want and strive for in America; but the seek information from we have to ask is can we afford it? A inspect was done on the National Center for Political Analysis website outlining what would happen if we adopted universal healthcare today. According to the situation if we were to scrutinize at another universal healthcare opinion such as Sweden’s, America would suffer far beyond what it is suffering today. Due to lower funding to hospitals through taxes instead of the healthcare providers, we would experience the following, a scurry in modern staff for hospitals, reduction in staff at hospitals and clinics, reduction in beds at hospitals to house patients, undertrained people taking on higher responsibilities such as surgery (Larson,1). This makes it hard for us to deem universal healthcare in America when there are so many negatives. However should the voices of the uninsured that are dying simply because they can’t afford their premiums be silenced?

Many of the uninsured living in America now are between the ages of 20-30, these by all means are young healthy individuals who feel like they will never need insurance until past the age of 30. They reflect, what are the odds of getting sick? They are classified by the insurance agencies as “young invincibles” these are the people who do not have the average $3,000 a year to utilize on health insurance let alone if their employer even offers it. Jake Hollner is by all rights a young healthy individual who at the age of 24 is working for Home Depot and is an artist portion time. He missed the insurance that Home Depot offers as it is only offered once a year in a two week time frame. He notion to himself that he did not have the money to afford insurance (he was only making $6 an hour) so why bother? The money he would attach from the insurance could be save to his medical bill if he had a onetime accident. He suffered from stomach ulcers since his undergraduate years in college, these ulcers honest starting coming support so he decided to bite the bullet and go to the doctors for befriend. He paid $200 for the visit and $73 for the prescription. This was his entire paycheck for the week but he was glorious suitable? The ulcers did not go away after he took his medication; he had to do the unthinkable for an uninsured person, he went to the emergency room. He lost his gamble with not having insurance he ended up paying a fortune for his ulcer coverage because he was without health insurance. The sincere costs were not disclosed. Jake before the doctor visit could barely afford rent and other living expenses including health insurance (Amsden, 1).

There are other stories such as Jake’s out there, where young people who are rarely sick do not have the coverage they need in case of an emergency. The healthcare providers commented on this blog which Jake’s myth was on. They gave him a link to bag affordable healthcare through them, the provider is Blue Unpleasant Blue Shield. Even if there was “affordable” healthcare to many, how could someone like Jake who was only making $6 an hour be able to fix his other expenses? There is no cutting corners in his case, he has no money and is living on necessities.

With the institution of universal healthcare people such as Jake would not have to pay a lot to gather coverage since he does not form a lot. Why is it that in America the better off richer class doesn’t want to relieve everyone else? Universal healthcare redistributes the wealth that we are not getting a share of. When the majority of our wealth is going to the 1/10 of the top 1% in our country how can the rest of us afford to live? In theory, their money would support fund everyone else with healthcare from their taxes. Wouldn’t it be better to live in a community where everyone helps each other, and there is no one who has to decide between eating or taking their child to the doctor’s office?

Universal healthcare is a topic that cannot be ignored any longer. We have too many people living amongst us who simply cannot afford the absurd premiums that the insurance companies are charging. The people that are dying because they cannot afford regular doctors visits are trusty people who have families and people that rely on them. This is a change that will need to be addressed as our modern president comes into office in the year.

Amsden, David. A Generation Uninsured. 26 March 2007. 10 4 2008 .

Appleby, Julie. USA Today. 12 February 2004. 2008 .

Blarney. Kuro5hin. 30 October 2003. 2006 .

“Blogging it.” Modern Healthcare 34.37 (13 Sep. 2004): 42-42. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Keene Set Library, Keene, NH 26 February 2008. .

Dalmia, Shikha. “Saying No to CoerciveCare.” Wall Street Journal – Eastern Edition 31 Jan. 2008: A16. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Keene Residence Library, Keene, NH. 26 February 2008. st-live&scope=site>.

Devore, Chuck. “Schwarzenegger’s Universal Healthcare Suffers Setback.” Human Events 64.5 (04 Feb. 2008): 7-14. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Keene Site Library, Keene, NH. 26 February 2008. .

healthinsurance. Health Insurance Blog. 25 March 2008. 2008 .

McCabe, Patrick. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 27 April 2005. 2008 .

Moore, Michael. Sicko check up the facts. 2008 .

NCPA. Lessons from Sweden’s Universal Healthcare. 24 4 2008. 24 4 2008 .

(NCPA)”Outliers.” Modern Healthcare 37.34 (27 Aug. 2007): 68-68. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Keene Region Library, Keene, NH. 26 February 2008. .

Susan Sered and Rushika Fernandopulle, M.D. The Well-liked Wealth Fund. 2 February 2005. 2008 .

Thielst, Christina Beach. “Weblogs: A Communication Tool.” Journal of Healthcare Management 52.5 (Sep. 2007): 287-289. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Keene Spot Library, Keene, NH. 26 February 2008. .

“Wanna play politics, kid? D.C. welcomes you to the ample leagues.” Modern Healthcare 37.41 (15 Oct. 2007): 36-36. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Keene Status Library, Keene, NH. 21 February 2008. .

Wattenberg, Ben. PBS. 2003. 12 4 2008 .

A blog of one’s own

Uninsured in the United States

Blogging is a relatively current technology that has helped shape how people communicate. With the aid of the internet, minority groups have been able to secure public serve and attention from their blog posts. The internet has gained mass popularity in the previous 15 years growing at an exponential rate; it allows us to come anyone anywhere at the rush of light. Blogging is primary because the average person can now project their message to millions of people online almost instantly. Blogs have become a key tool for minority groups to rep their thought across without spending a lot of money. They have empowered and given a reveal to, people without adequate health insurance, and will be able to succor more people in the future if the trend of blogging continues.

More than 44.8 Million people in the United States do not have health insurance (Wattenberg). This causes a tall deal of anguish for the average person living in the United States. The seek information from is whether or not health insurance is worth the amount of money they will have to employ or if they even have the money to employ on it. They then will ogle at the opportunity cost; this is what they will have to give up if they don’t purchase health insurance. When struggling to build this decision they often behold at themselves as healthy and won’t need or can’t afford health insurance. Health insurance costs on average of $10,880 dollars per family, however most companies cloak a broad piece of,this cost, thus making it cost on average $2,713 per year (Appleby). These numbers are staggering for the average family in America who get only $48,201 per year.

The uninsured in the USA are a seemingly invisible group to political elite and law makers. The jam with Universal healthcare is that it would, in theory, give everyone an equal opportunity at who gets what doctor. In other words there would be no “better” hospital to visit if you were wealthy or had some sort of influence. The documentary Sicko Michael Moore outlines what happens to people without health insurance in the USA, and it also largely covers what happens to people who have health insurance but their idea limits how great care they can receive. The documentary also includes what happens to people who live in countries who have universal healthcare. The documentary was an obscene bias towards Universal Healthcare, but it outlined many facts. The following quote comes from the Institute of Medicine, was featured in the movie Sicko, and indicates the severity of the US healthcare scrape.

According to the Institute of Medicine, “lack of health insurance causes roughly 18,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. Although America leads the world in spending on health care, it is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage.” (“Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations”)

This is a scary number of people that die each year from the lack of financial means in the United States. With the institution of Universal Healthcare that number would be down to zero.

The scary facts about United States unusual healthcare system are that the United States Government is doing limited in the scheme of making this number go down. Hillary Clinton, one of the biggest supporters of Universal Healthcare, was bought out by the drug companies and doctors in the do of campaign money. She is the second highest recipient of money from the modern healthcare system; thus causing a conundrum (Christensen). How can the government fix the modern plight when the candidates themselves are in the pockets of the healthcare system and big drug manufacturers? Most opinion it as a jam, but do not know the extent of the problem; the healthcare companies are spending more and more money hiring people to fight congress over healthcare plans. In fact, there are 2,084 lobbyist and only 535 members of congress (Mayor).

The uninsured are a great marginalized group in the United States that are not being represented by the government with adequate representation. The drug companies have the most to lose if the United States government adopts universal healthcare. They will lose the most because good now they are making their fortune off the unique health insurance understanding in the United States. They accomplish their money off not treating everyone and from their high premiums. The fresh Bush administration has been urged by the drug companies to not agree to a universal healthcare system. They offer payouts to high political figures such as George W. Bush himself. This money is objective a part of the amount of money that these drug companies receive every year from American families.

The uninsured American has no device to argue with the insurance or drug companies over how mighty their care will cost them. To effect it simply, they can’t. The following is a quote from Kuro5hin.org which posted this argument about bargaining rights of the uninsured:

“An individual who needs medical care has no bargaining power whatsoever with a hospital. He can either agree to pay whatever he is charged, or he can die. There are no other choices. In some cases, the government will force him to come by medical care – if he is a minor child in a family that does not wish to score him any for religious or financial reasons, or if he is considered not to be in possession of reason – but he will tranquil be billed. Refusing medical care for a uncertain or fatal condition is something most people won’t do – and may, in fact, be considered evidence of insanity which takes away the patient’s apt to refuse treatment at all. He can’t travel out because the sign seems unreasonable. In some cases negotiation is fruitful, but often it isn’t.”

This following scenario is a loyal area that far too many Americans face who are uninsured. They have no map to pay off their bill so they can only settle to refuse care instead, often doing this to benefit their families financially. Their bills often derive so high that if they chose to die, it would be better financially. So are we putting a ticket on human life?

Alarmed by the icy shoulder that the U.S. Senate shows the uninsured, I looked into genuine life accounts of uninsured persons in the United States and their chilling stories. The following tale touched me because it is of a hard working miner named Lenny who worked all his life in unforgiving conditions. He survived a mine fire which killed 91 of his co-workers. This didn’t end Lenny from returning to work, because after all he had three kids and with his job sizable health care. Unfortunately for Lenny he had health care up until the mine he worked for laid everyone off. This left Lenny with serious health problems from working underground for twenty years. He would eventually need medical care; so he applied for a job that offered medical assistance, and the only salvage was that it took 60 days to go into enact. The following comes from (Sered and Fernandopulle):

“The luck that had made Lenny one of the survivor’s of the 1972 mine fire had race out. Only 30 days after he began the job, he fell down onto the pavement in fat cardiac arrest. Paramedics flew him to Spokane, Wash., to a cardiac unit. His recovery was far better than anyone expected, but he was saddled with tremendous medical bills. A year later, he was sent to the hospital for angioplasty and eventually open-heart surgery. The doctors saved his life, but Lenny is level-headed suffering acute headaches as a result of falling to the pavement when he experienced the initial cardiac arrest. The cardiologist sent him to an otolaryngologist, who then sent him to other specialists for treatments; none has eliminated his headaches.

The bill for his various surgeries, consultations, medications, and treatments is more than $140,000—it might as well be $1 billion in terms of Lenny ever being able to pay it. His sole income at this time is the $400/month pension he receives from the mining company.

The second ending to Lenny’s fable is a bit different. Speaking with feeling about the first time he had to ask for public assistance, tears reach into his eyes, which seems incongruous for a man who went befriend down into the mine as soon as the smoke from the deadly fire had cleared out. “We have worked all of our lives, even went to work sick,” Lenny says. And now, instead of the dignity of automatic access to care, he depends on the golden heart of the county indigent assistance program.”

Lenny’s case is not an isolated one by any means; many people are uninsured and fraction similar stories about how the flaws of the unusual healthcare system.

Recently the blogging phenomenon has allowed many people with internet access to be able to fraction their healthcare stories with the world. Many people who can’t afford insurance can’t afford the cost of high urge internet which is required in order to blog. However, many public libraries offer this service and this allows many to have a snort when they wouldn’t previously. Healthinsuranceblog.com offers many different facts about the benefits of healthcare and what could happen if you don’t have it. The blog does not give accurate life accounts of people who are uninsured, but they back raise awareness of what it means to not have insurance. The blog brings up a edifying point about why Universal Healthcare in the United States is unlikely, we don’t have the money to provide healthcare for everyone. The government currently does not have the allocated funds to screen insurance for everyone. With a tax it might be able to afford healthcare, but currently there is not enough money. Over 55% of the uninsured don’t pay taxes (healthinsuranceblog) and there would have to be higher taxes for everyone while only some people aid. Health Insurance Blog is a political blog that outlines what the upcoming presidential candidates help for health care.

Healthcare is often a matter of life and death for many. Without health insurance, the uninsured cannot afford routine doctors visits so if there is something imperfect with them it is not detected until it’s too tedious. Most of the illness that people obtain can be easily treated with suitable care, but since most people terror the cost of a doctors or hospital visit they are left untreated.

Uninsured persons utilize political candidates to serve gain their message to the public about how indispensable their situations are. On the website healthinsuranceblog.com the democratic author talked about how politicians are getting the public aware of what it is like to be uninsured:

“In the Democratic Party primaries of 1988, for example, candidate Michael Dukakis talked about a young single mother who had two jobs and composed could not afford medical insurance for herself and her children. In 1992, Bill Clinton did the same, changing the fable only slightly. This time it was the case of a woman with diabetes who could not secure health insurance because of her chronic condition. And now, in the 2008 primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton (whom I worked with on the White House Health Care Reform Task Force in 1993) describes a similar case. This time it is a single woman, with two daughters, who cannot pay her medical bills because her congenital heart defect makes it impossible for her to get medical insurance coverage. And Barack Obama describes similar cases, with the eloquence that characterizes all of his speeches. He frequently refers to his beget mother, who had cancer and had to misfortune not only about her illness but about paying her medical bills.”

Healthcare cannot wait considerable longer. Americans are dying every day because they can’t afford to go to fetch a routine doctors visit or they can’t afford their medication. I looked at the earning of the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline which is one of the larger providers of health insurance, Jean-Pierre Garnier the CEO made $9.4 million dollars last year. How is it sparkling that many people in the United States are uninsured and can’t afford to salvage the wait on they need, and the CEO’s of the companies that are denying them affordable healthcare are making a huge salary. When people have to work two jobs unprejudiced to be able to afford to pay for their medications, why should insurance and drug companies continue to be making such a gargantuan profit?

Internet savvy users who happen to be uninsured illustrate their hardships over the internet. Oftentimes, people without healthcare who have problems have a hard time expressing their feelings about their situations because they either can’t afford to exercise the internet or are too frustrated. The internet, along with blogs, has become a tool for people to state their idea without the censor of mainstream media. Blogs are written by people who have a stutter and without an agenda (for the most allotment anyway; there are also corporate blogs).

Health care blogs are written by numerous people including, doctors, people without health insurance, and supporters of healthcare for everyone also known as universal healthcare. The commonwealthfund.org is an internet area that describes stories of people without healthcare and their hardships. The region is made for people to pick up awareness of how abominable it is to not have healthcare, and even perambulate down the stereotypes of people without health insurance. One stereotype I stale to have is that people without health insurance are idle, and or did not work hard enough to be able to afford it so it was be their fault for not having it. After looking at this location that gives minorities a enlighten, I learned that even college-educated men and woman have a hard time getting health care.

One profile on commonwealthfund.org was of a college graduate named Ryan who had to settle whether or not to gather a job based on income or healthcare. He was a healthy young individual who did not mediate he would need healthcare so he decided to prefer a job teaching which did not offer friendly benefits. Ryan fell down on his apartment stairs and afflict his knee, he now has very high hospital bills to pay off. He later had to occupy a job that paid less but offers health benefits. Ryan ended up getting care for his knee in Chili because they did not charge as noteworthy and offered equal or better service. The quiz I have to ask after reading Ryan’s memoir that he told was why should anyone have to settle between a career or a job that offers health benefits? What happened to what we were told as kids: “we can be anything we want to be? ” The truth is with our modern understanding many Americans are finding themselves working for adequate health service.

Blogs have become an kindly make of education for people who did not know about what is happening to the uninsured. With the unique popularity of blogs, many are using their pronounce to disprove well-liked misconceptions about what is it like to not be fully covered by their insurance company when they need care. After reading all the Profiles of the uninsured on commonwealthfund.org I wanted to know more about how we could procure their stories across to more people. The upcoming election for president has given the most power to the uninsured. The biggest predicament that is being addressed besides the Iraq war is the topic of affordable healthcare for all. The fact is that healthcare is only affordable for the average American making under $50,000 for a family is one that is mostly covered by their employer. But with the economy falling without or dinky growth since 2001 has not made it accessible for microscopic companies to provide healthcare for their employees.

Microscopic business owners are finding it increasingly difficult to afford the cost of healthcare for employees. Runt businesses have to deal with high taxes by the government on their income (this number is usually around 35% but can very location by location), this is a high number so the amount of funds left after paying for overhead is very slight. The goal of slight business it to expand and grow, but how can they afford to do that with all the costs they have? If healthcare cost less for business owners the economy would follow suit. It would grow, and I dare say we would be out of the recession that we are currently in. There is slight in obtain of growth in the United States compared to other developing nations.

Universal Healthcare to many Americans is not primary to them because they are already covered; however I am concerned about it because the United States is doing so poorly economically. Blogs have been principal in addressing the roar of how noteworthy money in being spent by individuals every year. In 2003 1.3 trillion dollars was spent on healthcare by the American people. This is an alarming amount of money that is going to something that is under regulated as far as sign goes. The drug companies and insurance companies are taking a ample fragment of all Americans income each year. Healthcare blogs have played a large role in getting the public’s attention at this vow. They often originate issues aware to us that we may not have known about; blogs unlike mainstream media are not censored and do not have a corporate sponsor. Americans who do not have health insurance gather their stories about their hardships on blogs or others write about them on their behalf.

I found a family member in my family who did not have health insurance. I learned last year she had a major operation on her abet, and I often wondered how she was going to pay for it. I conducted an interview with her and what I found out was disturbing. I have to say I am slightly bias towards this because she is a family member; however it does not create the facts any less chilling.

My Aunt Lisa Herbert is a working class woman who did not execute high school or support any formal schooling after she dropped out. She got pregnant at the young age of 15 and had her first child at the age of 16. Lisa had a tough life from her teenage years. She had a hard time raising a kid at her age; she went through multiple husbands and boyfriends who would promise to acquire care of her children but left her financially ruined. Lisa’s yarn regarding medical insurance starts two years ago in 2006. From all aspects she had a hard life but she wanted to tranquil produce something of herself, she got a job at a Dunkin Donuts as was promoted snappily to manager. She was enjoying for the first time in her life financial freedom even if it was small; she had the sense of independence. She went to work honest as she has always done one day in the winter; she fell on the ice leading up to the Dunkin Donuts she worked at. She fractured one her vertebras, however not life threatening, neither were her injuries threatening enough to fabricate her become a paraplegic. However she was level-headed injured. Lisa could not chase or be mobile for over 6 months; now imagine this as she described to me, she was finally becoming financially independent and was proud to become a manager, then after one accident she landed in the hospital. She did not have well-behaved insurance; she had what Dunkin Donuts provided for her. She was “lucky” in the sense that because she did not have the financial means to sue them. Dunkin Donuts gave her the pay for the 6 months that she was not working. She took this as a gift, but from my point of plan she could have got more out of them if she had money. Lisa then had to pay overwhelming medical bills (the right amount was not disclosed) that mounted on her already oppressed status.

Lisa’s tale is not an isolated one or even a rarity in the United States. Many workers who are working either retail or chain restaurants are not making it financially. The rising cost of healthcare that is not provided from the companies that they are working for is overwhelming and often times unaffordable. The blogging community is unprejudiced starting to acquire up issues of social injustice that is being done to marginalized groups such as the medically uninsured in the United States and giving them a disclose. These groups should not be silenced because they do not have enough money to pay for pleasant care or routine visits.

I want to address one well-known insist that the readers of this paper may be having; I have talked a lot about universal healthcare and how the uninsured need care as well. Many Americans that I have spoken to said that they don’t want unfriendly quality care if we decided to do universal healthcare. I have a personal myth I want to allotment to sure up any confusion with the quality of nonprofit hospitals or hospitals that offer free care. When I was the age of 15 I had a severe flat foot spot, with health insurance that covered nearly 99% of all medical bills my parents had to pay over $3,000 out of pocket for treatment in order to score custom made orthotics for my feet and other care. They did not work. I ended up going to a hospital in Springfield Massachusetts that offered free orthopedic care to anyone under the age of 18; we did this only because all the “specialists” we visited did not befriend my condition. My doctor I had was the top orthopedic surgeon at the hospital and could rival any at a paying hospital. He suggested a modern treatment for my feet without surgery and gave me free orthotics that actually helped. My family had the money to secure nearly any doctor that would back me however this was the only doctor that knew what he was doing that we visited so far. He was unruffled paid but by donations (he drove a 7 series BMW so he was getting paid a lot). I assume that Americans that are opposing universal healthcare have a bent belief on what it means to not have insurance pay for their care. I want to address one more thing, I found out about this hospital from a healthcare blog (can’t remember which one) which had other patients writing about their care and how they were helped by this hospital.

Universal healthcare to many is something that we want and strive for in America; but the inquire we have to ask is can we afford it? A scrutinize was done on the National Center for Political Analysis website outlining what would happen if we adopted universal healthcare today. According to the plot if we were to eye at another universal healthcare idea such as Sweden’s, America would suffer far beyond what it is suffering today. Due to lower funding to hospitals through taxes instead of the healthcare providers, we would experience the following, a traipse in unique staff for hospitals, reduction in staff at hospitals and clinics, reduction in beds at hospitals to house patients, undertrained people taking on higher responsibilities such as surgery (Larson,1). This makes it hard for us to reflect universal healthcare in America when there are so many negatives. However should the voices of the uninsured that are dying simply because they can’t afford their premiums be silenced?

Many of the uninsured living in America now are between the ages of 20-30, these by all means are young healthy individuals who feel like they will never need insurance until past the age of 30. They contemplate, what are the odds of getting sick? They are classified by the insurance agencies as “young invincibles” these are the people who do not have the average $3,000 a year to employ on health insurance let alone if their employer even offers it. Jake Hollner is by all rights a young healthy individual who at the age of 24 is working for Home Depot and is an artist piece time. He missed the insurance that Home Depot offers as it is only offered once a year in a two week time frame. He plan to himself that he did not have the money to afford insurance (he was only making $6 an hour) so why bother? The money he would build from the insurance could be build to his medical bill if he had a onetime accident. He suffered from stomach ulcers since his undergraduate years in college, these ulcers unprejudiced starting coming help so he decided to bite the bullet and go to the doctors for support. He paid $200 for the visit and $73 for the prescription. This was his entire paycheck for the week but he was sparkling correct? The ulcers did not go away after he took his medication; he had to do the unthinkable for an uninsured person, he went to the emergency room. He lost his gamble with not having insurance he ended up paying a fortune for his ulcer coverage because he was without health insurance. The dependable costs were not disclosed. Jake before the doctor visit could barely afford rent and other living expenses including health insurance (Amsden, 1).

There are other stories such as Jake’s out there, where young people who are rarely sick do not have the coverage they need in case of an emergency. The healthcare providers commented on this blog which Jake’s account was on. They gave him a link to obtain affordable healthcare through them, the provider is Blue Wrong Blue Shield. Even if there was “affordable” healthcare to many, how could someone like Jake who was only making $6 an hour be able to fix his other expenses? There is no cutting corners in his case, he has no money and is living on necessities.

With the institution of universal healthcare people such as Jake would not have to pay a lot to score coverage since he does not form a lot. Why is it that in America the better off richer class doesn’t want to support everyone else? Universal healthcare redistributes the wealth that we are not getting a portion of. When the majority of our wealth is going to the 1/10 of the top 1% in our country how can the rest of us afford to live? In theory, their money would benefit fund everyone else with healthcare from their taxes. Wouldn’t it be better to live in a community where everyone helps each other, and there is no one who has to decide between eating or taking their child to the doctor’s office?

Universal healthcare is a topic that cannot be ignored any longer. We have too many people living amongst us who simply cannot afford the absurd premiums that the insurance companies are charging. The people that are dying because they cannot afford regular doctors visits are valid people who have families and people that rely on them. This is a change that will need to be addressed as our novel president comes into office in the year.

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Issues and Benefits to Consider when Starting a Child-Care Business

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