The Problems With Health Care

It seems like everywhere I turn these days I either hear or read that "we need to fix health care". Health care in the United States is not broken. The best health care in the world is in the United States. There is a problem however, with the cost. Something needs to be done to make health care more affordable. Before that can be done, we need to look at the problems that cause health care to be expensive. The following list is in no particular order.

1) There are many patients that are either corrupt, greedy or lack morals. They look to get rich quick by suing at the drop of a hat. This forces the doctor to carry more and higher malpractice insurance. Since the doctor has more insurance, his premiums are higher and consequently he passes that on to his patients. The doctor also must run more tests to protect himself in case of a lawsuit. Running more tests again means that the cost to the patient will be greater.

2) There are also greedy doctors that charge more if they know an insurance company or the government will be paying the bill. Some doctors also have ownership in laboratories so they will have a patient take extra tests to make some money. Since the insurance companies will have to pay more, the cost gets passed on to the patient via higher premiums.

3) There are greedy insurance companies. Since there is no competition outside of states, they have the opportunity for some form of collusion. They see that they have to pay more so they have high premiums, they also extend those premiums as high as possible which raises the cost to the patient.

4) There is a problem getting or maintaining insurance if you have certain pre-existing conditions.

5) Illegal aliens. The take health care that was intended for the low income legal citizens. It puts a strain on emergency rooms as well as the funds that are reserved for the low income citizens.

What we need to remember is that in order to have good health care, it will cost some money. Having said that, there are ways to reduce the cost and I talk about that in my next article.