Six Health Care Myths

1. The uninsured are uninsured by choice

This is a cruel lie used by people who want to maintain the status quo. They claim that because some people are offered employer-sponsored health insurance and don't take it, it means they "choose" to be uninsured. The truth is that they can't afford it; the amount employees have to pay for employer-sponsored plans has been rising and, for many lower-income people, the deductions for insurance would not leave them with enough money to live on. This statement also implies that people without access to employer-sponsored insurance can always get insurance on their own, which is not true. See the next point.

2. Anyone can get health insurance, but some people are unwilling to pay for it

It is not true that anyone can get health insurance. People with chronic conditions and older people may simply be turned down by every company to which they apply. If not turned down, they may be offered inferior coverage at very high rates. The Commonwealth Fund reports that a full nine out of every ten Americans who seek private insurance never buy. Of those who do apply for a plan, 20 percent are turned down or charged much more than the company's lowest quote because of a preexisting condition. The insurance they can get may not be worth what they'd have to pay for it or the cost may far more than they can afford. While there may be some people who decide to take a chance and do without health insurance just to save the cost, most people eventually realize the value of having protection from the extraordinarily high cost of illness. It's safe to say that almost everyone wants to have health insurance… but they want good coverage at a cost they can afford. For a growing number of Americans, this is impossible.

3. We can solve our health care crisis by mandating that everyone buy insurance

The problem with this is that it equates all "insurance" as being of equal value, but this is not true. Someone with employer-sponsored insurance through a large corporation probably has excellent coverage, while someone buying their own insurance will likely have very skimpy coverage at very high cost. The person with a large group policy gets more health care at lower cost than the person buying their own, whose so-called "insurance" may pay nothing for a trip to the ER, for tests at the doctor's office and may leave policyholders with thousands of dollars worth of bills if they are hospitalized. A Harvard study showed that medical bills are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy, but the fact that was the most surprising is that 75% of those forced into bankruptcy by medical bills HAD insurance! Mandating coverage is a windfall for insurance companies if they are only required to provide insurance, not good coverage. By forcing people to buy expensive "bare bones" insurance, we enrich insurance companies, further impoverish people with low incomes, and leave these same people still vulnerable to bankruptcy if they get sick. But it allows those who promote this concept to salve their own consciences that they have made sure "everyone has insurance." Health insurance does not equal health care.

4. Private insurance is better than public programs

Better? How? Because its administrative costs are as much as 30% while Medicare administrative costs are only 3%? Private insurance companies "cherry pick" the young and healthy to insure and dump older sicker people at the first opportunity. You have private insurance only as long as you pay the monthly premiums. You could have paid $10,000 so far in premiums this year, then you find you simply cannot afford the next payment. The day after your coverage ends you get sick. All the next payments you made to that insurance company are useless and mean nothing. You have no coverage. With a public plan, you pay - yes - but your coverage will never end. The money you put into it stays in the plan and your coverage is guaranteed. You can never get that kind of security with a private plan.

5. Americans do not support universal coverage

All the evidence shows that Americans DO want what Canadians and Europeans have: universal coverage. A recent government task force formed to study what Americans want in health care showed overwhelming support for universal coverage, and the task force recommended "All Americans should have access to a set of core health care services across the continuum of care… ." A Century Foundation report called "What the Public Really Wants on Health Care" included this: "Rising health care costs are consistently ranked as not just the most important health care problem, but the most important economic problem Americans currently face." The same report noted that an October 2003 Washington Post/ABC News poll, showed, by almost a two-to-one margin (62 percent to 33 percent), Americans said they preferred 'a universal health insurance program, in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that's run by the government and financed by taxpayers," as opposed to the current employer-based system." And the number of Americans who want a government-funded system is rising. In a BusinessWeek poll in 2005, 67 percent supported a system like Canada's.

6. The employer-based system works

On the contrary, the employer-based system is an unfair and increasingly unworkable way for our nation to respond the health care needs of citizens. The percentage of employers offering health insurance has been dropping each year, the cost to employees has been rising (to the point where many have to turn down the coverage because they cannot afford their share of the premiums), and it is profoundly unfair to millions of Americans who work for small companies or are self-employed. It is a system that discourages entrepreneurship, that keeps people in jobs they hate because of the insurance, that keeps people in bad marriages because of the insurance, and puts America at a global disadvantage. The United States is alone among the family of nations in relying on private insurance to pay for health care services. The employer-based system is a burden to business and unfair to everyone without access to a quality employer-based plan, who find their only option is trying to purchase an inferior and overpriced private plan (using taxed dollars). The inequities in this arrangement are unworthy of a great nation like the United States of America.

Is the "individual mandate" plan "Universal Health Care" or universal boondoggle? See Can we get to universal coverage with mandates?

     Six Health Care Myths,by Theresa Welsh

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