Will Clinton Solve The Problem Of Health Insurance For People With Pre-existing Conditions?
As the US Presidential race heats up it is no surprise to see that health care and health insurance is towards the top of the agenda and, for a lot of us, the possibility of finding a solution for the problem of cheap insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions may make Senator Clinton's plan an attractive choice. But is it likely to work?
Like the majority of plans it sounds fantastic and promises to offer a range of new choices for individuals who presently have health insurance coverage and also for the 47,000,000 Americans who are presently without health insurance. In addition, it promises to cut your premiums and provide you with better security of cover. For individuals with pre-existing conditions it promises to "end discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or expectations of illness".
Hillary Clinton's plan to address America's health insurance needs calls upon providers to work with employers and patients to provide a high quality of health care at an affordable price and on government to implement reforms to the health care system in order to both increase the quality of care and reduce costs.
This of course is exactly what we all want to see but if it were really that simple why is the health care system today in such a mess and why are costs climbing instead of declining?
The simple fact is that this is merely the latest in a growing list of plans to sort out the health insurance system and is pie in the sky. Essentially it is little more than a political proposal which is extremely well written and beautifully presented and will no doubt to some extent meet its objective, which is quite simply to drum up votes. It will not however do anything to improve health insurance as it is simple does not address real world issues.
Today health insurance is very big business and has very little to do with offering health care and a great deal to do with making profits for the insurers. Now you can talk to the providers all day long but, unless the US government is going to throw a considerable sum of money at the problem then costs are not going to come down.
Anyone who has experienced private medical care carried out overseas will know only too well that a large portion of the cost of providing care in the US represents profits for the insurance companies and not the actual cost of providing care. You have only to seek major medical treatment in any of the many superb hospitals in the Far East to realize that you can get the very highest quality of care at a mere fraction of the cost of providing that same care in the United States. And if you believe that the quality of care overseas is not as good as that in the US then think again because a substantial number of the medical facilities in the Far East are staffed by very highly qualified doctors and surgeons and have some of the most modern equipment to be found anywhere in the world.
It is all very well to talk about working with the providers to lower costs but the truth of the matter is that it is far from being in their interests to do so. Costs will stay at their present high levels and indeed will continue to increase until the US government decides to take over responsibility for the provision of the mainstay of health care in the United States.
