Healthcare: the next economic bomb?

http://http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/09/28/0928healthcare_edit.html
Consider that more than 45 million Americans have no health care coverage (nearly 6 million Texans lack coverage), and health care costs are growing faster than the economy. Those costs account for 16 cents of every dollar spent in the United States, according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. Its January report stated that "our health care system is badly broken. In fact, if there is one thing that could bankrupt America, it's runaway health care costs."

There is a new economic crisis brewing under everyones' noses. It has been there for some time. We hear people talk about it, but no-one really ever seems to worry about it until they need medical attention. By that time, it's too late. The fact is that, as seen above, there are too many people without health care coverage. The current system is arranged to make it so that people without health coverage can't afford medical treatment on their own. The insurance companies have almost created a monopoly on Americas' health. This is unacceptable and needs to be changed. For those people who cannot afford health care the taxpayers are now covering the costs. What happens when the taxpayers can no longer afford to cover the costs of the uninsured and their own families? The Obama plan taxes the "rich people" who make over $250K and uses some of that money to help cover health costs. It would also gice another $50 million dollars to help the health care industry update record, technology and equipment. McCain's plan gives tax credits to families and lets them shop around for a private provider. Neither plan really seems to address the insurance-caused inflation problems of our current health care system.

Is the high cost of health insurance the problem? Is the inflation caused by the insurance the problem? I realize that this is a huge problem with many factors. I does seem to me, however, that simply providing more money to the health unsurance companies will only wind up letting them throw more expensive parties. While the rest of America is left wondering when this health care crisis will become front page news.



Health care by the numbers :

In 2007, 45 million nonelderly people in the United States lacked health coverage.
Nearly 6 million Texans (5,832,884) lacked health insurance.
More than eight in 10 uninsured people (81 percent) come from working families.
About two-thirds of the nonelderly uninsured are from low-income families (income below 200 percent of poverty, about $42,400 for a family of four in 2007).
Adults ages 19-54 make up the majority (71 percent) of the nonelderly uninsured, but nearly 9 million children lacked health coverage in 2007.
Since 2000, the number of nonelderly uninsured has grown by 8 million — with the only decline in the number of uninsured occurring in 2007, largely driven by an increase in public coverage.
Uninsured adults are five times as likely as the privately insured to lack a usual source of care (54 percent vs. 10 percent) and four times as likely to postpone care because of cost (26 percent vs. 6 percent).
Half of the uninsured report that paying for health care and health insurance is a serious problem.
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation