Insurance is Not Health Care
To listen to the vitriol regarding health care reforms for Americans, you would think we were in the civil war again. I have noticed a number of trends in blogs and citizens meetings on health care reform and thought I needed to speak up. Number one, insurance is not health care, it is a financing vehicle for people to pay for health care and this is available to approximately half of the United States population. In order to obtain "private health insurance" many conditions must exist such as: 1) The employer offers health care 2) The employee actually makes a living wage and can afford the premiums 3) A health insurance company serves their area and is accepted by clinicians and hospitals 4) The person is not disabled or otherwise uninsurable 5) Or an individual policy may be available in their region or rural locale Obviously a lot of employers are not offering health insurance, which is representative of the "private health care system" we have now. As an examp...