With at least 18% of Americans uninsured and obesity on the rise with related disability, how will you be able to pay for your health care costs? (Pollitz, 2006) At the time of this writing, the unemployment rate in the United States is 10.6% and 6.4% in Utah, with no immediate sign of declining numbers. (Bureau of Labor Statistics Data, 2010) This poses the question of, ‘how will you pay for health related costs’? The remedy; public insurance. Another option, organ trade.
According to Karen Pollitz, people older than age 65, qualify for Medicare. On her slide labeled: “Health care coverage of Non-Elderly”, it reads:
That age group (greater than 65) has virtually universal (healthcare). Before age 65, we rely on various sources of coverage. About 15% of the non-elderly are covered under public programs, mostly Medicaid; a safety net program for certain low income people: children, parents of dependent children, pregnant women, and people with disabilities who cannot work. The vast majority of people under age 65 rely on private health insurance. In our $1.9 Trillion health care system in 2004, more than 1/3 of total health care spending was finance by private health insurance. More than 60% of the non-elderly get private health insurance at work-as a benefit from their own job or as the spouse or dependent of a working family member. About 5 percent of the non-elderly buy health insurance on their own, in what’s called the “individual insurance market.” The rest, 18% or almost 46 million non-elderly Americans; are uninsured. (Pollitz, 2006)
At the time of publishing, the un-employment rate was between 4 and 5 percent. (Bureau of Labor Statistics Data, 2010) It would be safe to assume that the number of uninsured American’s doubled to a maximum of 36% or 92 million non-elderly Americans. This figure is supported by the number of bankrutpcies increasing 34.5% from 2008 to 2009. (Redmond, 2009) Again, it is safe to say that according to The American Journal of Medicine, 92% percent of these filers owe medical debt leaving the unpaid debts to the hospitals to cover and for the insured to have to pick up the extra ‘cost’ of doing buisness. (Himmelstein, Thorne, Warren, & Woolhandler, 2009) With the costs of doing business becoming more expensive, naturally; hospitals would decrease charity care. This translates the cost back to the uninsured former patient with debtors continually chasing after the money of their clients, leaveing a difficult situation for the former patient who could easily sell a kidney on the ‘black market’ for roughly $20,000 to pay their debts. (Griffen & Fitzpatrick, 2009)