Got Health insurance? Good for you. It's nice to have a little peace of mind, knowing you can go to a doctor if you're feeling ill or be treated in a hospital if your doctor feels it necessary, and you may not have go bankrupt or become homeless in the process. Well millions of Americans don't have health insurance - yet. If they feel ill, they tough it out. If they need hospitalization, they wait it out, hoping by some miracle they "get better". If things get too bad they go to Emergency Rooms to be treated in the most expensive, inefficient way possible. If they can pay at all, they will carry a huge debt for a long time. If they cannot pay, the rest of us will pick up the tab in higher insurance costs and higher medical bills.
And guess what, healthcare costs in America are twice what the next most expensive country's costs are and yet we are only 33rd in the list of positive health outcomes among the industrialized world. How can the Affordable Care Act, which will open doors for the millions of uninsured Americans to actually get insurance be a bad thing? With the few benefits that have already been enacted, i.e. free preventative care, children under 26 staying on their parents' policies, etc. the ever rising costs of health care have risen at the slowest rate in decades. Is it bad if someone who now can get health insurance sees their doctor for a cold, instead of waiting to go the Emergency Room with pneumonia?
As someone who went without health insurance for over two years, because I was laid off from work and it was unaffordable, and who knows the dread of worrying that a fall down the stairs could put me and my family on the street, I am excited that others, who are in a similar position, might be able to have a little peace of mind as well.
Jack Rothman
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