One day a couple of years ago I began experiencing some chest pains. They were noticeable but not debilitating. After twenty-four hours they got worse. I was concerned, but reluctant to go to the hospital because I knew it would be an emergency room visit. After waiting most of the day, I eventually went to the ER for my chest pains.
I arrived and was checked in swiftly and began to be monitored. Doctors and nurses came to take my vitals and perform an EKG to monitor my heart activity. While I was concerned about my well-being as I lay in the hospital bed, I couldn’t stop thinking about something else:
The bill.
After several hours in the ER my pain wasn’t getting any worse. The doctors determined my pain was located in my chest wall and not my heart. I was discharged and eventually discovered my issue was immobility in my back that was causing the tissue near my sternum to become inflamed.
It’s a relief to know that I didn’t have a cardiac event. But the experience was still terrifying. In the end I was charged $1200 for my ER visit.
When four in ten Americans can’t afford an unexpected $400 expense, having out of pocket healthcare expenses like mine means for many there are only two options: Get wages garnished by a collection agency (potentially leading to bankruptcy), or not get treatment when necessary.
There is a growing group of people that are fed up with the US healthcare system. It certainly includes anyone who can not afford their healthcare and those who are not insured.
Fortunately I am insured and can afford my healthcare. Knowing my audience, the reader likely is insured and can afford their healthcare as well. However, there is a false sense of security with the position of being insured and having affordable healthcare that I want to dissect here.
When I think to myself, “I can afford my healthcare,” I am reminded that the truer statement is, “I can afford my healthcare right now.” The reality is that I can only afford my healthcare as long as my illnesses are affordable. If I were reaching my out-of-pocket maximums every single year, I wouldn’t be able to afford my healthcare.
In effect, I can only afford my healthcare because I am healthy. And as much as we all hate to admit it, shit happens. Cancer, disease, injuries and accidents throw a wrench in our life plans. If being able to afford healthcare is contingent on not needing healthcare, the system is broken.
The other issue for insured people is that as a nation our insurance is tied to so many things that it shouldn’t be tied to. For example, these are just a few of the ways people can lose their insurance in this country:
- Losing employment (for any reason)
- Turning 26 when insured by a parent’s plan
- Insured by a parent’s plan and the parent dies or loses employment
- Insured by spouse’s plan and the spouse dies, the marriage ends, or the spouse loses employment
I have a great job. Losing my job would be one thing, but I would also lose my health insurance if I became unemployed. This makes workers more desperate both to find jobs and to keep them. I know several people who have stayed at their jobs longer than they want (sometimes years) because of the employer-based health insurance plan that they couldn’t afford if they were unemployed.
Employer-based insurance gives far too much power to the employer. They chose the plan or plans that the employee has access to. It means that workers are at the mercy of the employer for the quality and coverage of the health care that they will have access to. We are accustomed to this in our country; we need to recognize our acclamation to such an imbalanced power dynamic to be able to envision something better.
Beyond the false sense of security that people in my position can have, there is a larger problem with our healthcare system: the profit motive of private insurance companies. Health insurance providers make their profits by denying coverage. Have a preexisting condition? Not covered. Have an out-of-plan procedure or treatment by an out-of-network caregiver? Not covered. These insurance companies only profit if people pay more into the plan than the company pays out.
It’s important to distinguish between the actual healthcare providers and the insurance companies. The caregivers provide the health services to people. People pay into their health insurance plans, and then their plan providers pay the caregivers. The insurance companies make billions of dollars in profit by being a middleman in a bloated system.
We need Medicare for All because it eliminates the dependence on private health insurance companies in the US. It makes the government the single payer for healthcare instead of having private (profit-extracting) industry involved in the payment of medical costs for citizens. It would save Americans more than $450 billion annually by reducing costs and overhead.
Beyond the money and efficiency arguments, the most critical reason we need Medicare for All is that it is estimated to save more than 68,000 lives annually. Take that in—in our current healthcare system, as the status quo, tens of thousands of people will die that could otherwise be saved by a Medicare for All, single-payer system. Every. Year.
When presidential candidates, politicians, and pundits talk about how we need “choice” in our healthcare and that Medicare for All takes that choice away, realize they are often pushing an agenda supported by the insurance industry. What choice does our current system provide that would be taken away?
It is not a choice when one loses their job that they also lose their employer-based healthcare. It is not a choice when one’s employer downgrades their insurance plans to plans that have less coverage. It is not a choice when a full-time worker’s role is converted to an independent contractor relationship removing their access to a full-time healthcare plan. It is not a choice when the only options are an unaffordable public exchange option or no coverage at all.
Employer-based health insurance is the system that limits the choices of everyday working people. Fearmongering about the “lack of choice” in a Medicare for All, single-payer system comes from the ones that retain the most power and profit potential from the unbalanced relationship of the current system. We need to recognize it for what it is. It’s in the insurance companies’ best interests to fight against Medicare for All, not the masses.
As a nation founded on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it is truly in line for us to dismantle the system that constricts and inhibits the health and well-being of us all. It is a moral imperative that we address the health crisis in our country with so many lives on the line. We need Medicare for All. Bernie Sanders is the only candidate who can bring it to fruition and has a path to the presidency. It’s one of the many reasons why I endorse him for President.
From my mind to yours,
Quinn
Quinn Out Loud 
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