Most Americans do have medical insurance coverage. Out of a population of almost 300 million in the U.S., it is estimated that 43-45 million people are uninsured. But it is not the poor people that have problems – it is the lower middle class. The U.S. government has two insurance programs, Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid provides free medical insurance to low income families, while Medicare provides very low cost, highly subsidized insurance to the retirees. And if you don’t qualify for either government program, then hopefully your employer provides medical coverage. The vast majority of large companies provide medical insurance to the employees and their families. But most small companies and many mid-size companies do not have medical insurance.
So if you are poor, you are protected. If you are old, you are protected. If you are rich, you don’t care about insurance since you can always pay out of your pocket. If you are in the middle class, and your employer does not have medical insurance, then it becomes a really big problem because medical insurance is so expensive and many middle income people cannot afford it. The only saving grace is that, under federal law, all hospitals must treat patients who seek help in the hospital emergency room, whether the patient can afford to pay for the treatment or not. If the patient cannot pay, the hospital generally absorbs the loss.
If you have medical insurance, the American system is pretty good, since you have access to some of the best hospitals and most advanced procedures in the world. But the casualties of this system are the 43-45 million uninsured Americans, and the American companies that must spend a huge sum of money to insure a large percentage of the American population. The high cost of providing medical insurance has become a major issue for American companies, which have to compete with foreign companies that do not have that burden.
Canada, Japan, and most European countries have national insurance coverage for all citizens. That system, too, has its drawbacks. Everyone in the country is guaranteed a minimum level of medical care. But in a sense, medical care is rationed, and patients sometimes have to wait for months for some services, such as doing an MRI scan, or some non-emergency procedures.
Oscar
