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10/17/12
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1754 views
Editorial
Health insurance saves lives
Health insurance saves lives.
Voters should recognize this fact as they elect a president, and state lawmakers should acknowledge it as they decide whether to adopt a federally funded expansion of Medicaid.
In less politically charged times, people would understand the life-saving benefits of public and private insurance intuitively.
A person who can’t afford to visit a doctor for the flu sometimes develops pneumonia and sometimes dies. When the cost is too high, people are less likely to check out the suspicious lump or urinary discomfort and are thus less likely to discover the cancer while it is treatable.
Uninsured people with diabetes tend to forego treatment, which can lead to fatal heart disease.
While hospital emergency rooms cannot turn away uninsured patients, they can and do bill them.
The prospect of bankruptcy sometimes prevents people from seeking needed emergency care.
It is thus no surprise that, when states increase Medicaid coverage, their mortality rates drop. When New York, Maine and Arizona expanded coverage, their mortality rates decreased by 6.1 percent.
Insurance coverage may partly explain why Alabama — which has a high percentage of uninsured residents — has a life expectancy of 75.
Massachusetts and Canada — both of which have universal coverage — have life expectancies of 81.
When Mitt Romney claims, “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance,” he is correct if he is speaking only of those people who have such high incomes they can easily absorb medical costs. But that does not describe the incomes of most Alabamians.
The mere fact that insurance saves lives does not mean we should ignore the costs of providing coverage. Even lives must be balanced against finite state and federal budgets.
Voters should understand, however, that electing candidates who promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act means more people will die.
Similarly, Alabama lawmakers should recognize that a refusal to expand Medicaid will cost lives. The federal government will pay for all of the cost of expanded coverage for three years, and at least 90 percent thereafter.
While the state should not forego a cost-benefit analysis just because lives are at risk, it needs to examine all benefits. A study in Michigan, released Tuesday, concluded the expansion would save state dollars by shifting expenditures for mental health services and medical care for prisoners to the federal government.
Money is tight, but lives are on the line.
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Medicaid and Medicare are health payment plans, not insurance. Insurance is risk based. Try vgettting insurance on your house after the tree falls on it.
People paying for their own health insurance saves nations.
Obama Care is not the answer. Government is never the answer to this type of problem. If you look through the huge document "Obama Care" you will discover that the health care that is being proposed doesn't cover things like transplants, etc. It also states that persons above the age of 70 will be subject to "pallative care". In case you are not familiar with that term, let me take a moment to enlighten you. Pallative care is hospice. That means if you need a surgery after age 70, you will be made comfort with medication, but no surgery to correct the problem. I suggest you go on-line and actually read the document. You will discover that Obama Care is basically NO CARE.
We can't afford to pay for ObamaCare. It doesn't cover all illnesses. I want to choose my own insurance not pushed on Government insurance. After 70 no hope for us. Government employees will take care of their parents, they won't have to worry.They won't be put on same coverage they want to push on us. Inmates paid by government will cost less, how, State will be billed for these inmates, we the people will still be paying for it. We take care of our people, insurance or not..
Suzanne, please cite the section and paragraph that states that a patient over 70 will get no surgery so I can read it. Thanks
I am in the middle of reading ObamaCare Survival Guide that I ordered by Rick Tate. I suggest some of you read this, as nothing is mentioned about old age, I am 71, being killed off one by one, although Medicare it is being affected, Medicaid will help. I believe that the newspaper should publish informative information regarding Obamacare every day and telling the truth about this healthcare, good or bad. Alabama is the number one state that will benefit from ObamaCare according to this book. I have been without insurance once for two years and know that there is no alternative except for the free clinic
I used to be a nurse and have seen patients turned away from the hospital after them finding out you did not have insurance. ObamaCare is not the answer to everything, as there could be some improvements made, but people were also against social security being implemented, or I have read that people were very much against it. This book is written where most of use can understand it. If anyone has a good idea how to run this country, they should put in their two cents and maybe a good idea could be the answer.