Personal Accountability and the U.S. Health Care Problem

Every time the issue of Health Care comes up these days, the elephants fill the room but remain largely ignored. The issue of "rising costs" is hotly debated, yet key factors are not honestly addressed, among them that dirty 14 letter word: Accountability. The personal kind.

Blame is thrown at the insurance companies who are often able to negotiate the medical bills down from where they would have been for a patient had there been no insurance company intervention.

You hear complaints about employer based health insurance coverage that makes no sense whatsoever. The contribution I choose to make to my health coverage via deductions from my paycheck is probably only a fraction of what my employer pays to keep me insured as part of my benefit package and is a lot less than what I would have to pay without the employer benefit.

Blame is thrown at the medical professionals for "charging too much for their services" - professionals who themselves have to pay astronomical malpractice insurance premiums because too many lawsuits demand too high a "reward" to the plaintiff. These same professionals are obligated to provide the same quality of service to the "non-payers" as they do to the “payers”.

Not nearly enough blame is attributed to allowing incarcerated criminals to receive premium benefits, courtesy of the law-abiding, hard-working American taxpayer. Or for allowing the millions of illegal aliens, who send their “hard earned” money back “home”, to become "entitled" to “free” health care in America, courtesy of the law-abiding, hard-working legal American taxpayer.

And last but not least, not nearly enough blame is thrown at all those who choose not to afford health insurance coverage for themselves, whether on their own or via their employer benefit options, but who are more than willing to afford their smoking, alcohol, and drug habits, the very habits that virtually guarantee that they will one day need extensive health care. Like the criminals and illegal aliens, they will probably be "entitled" to it, courtesy of the law-abiding, hard-working American taxpayer who continues to bear the burden of shouldering the cost of that "entitlement".

Next time a poll is done about the problem of "U.S. Health Care and its Cost", let it be determined what percentage of the uninsured are criminals, illegal aliens and substance abusers. Then we can start having an honest debate about the Health Care problem in America.

Not nearly enough blame is attributed to allowing incarcerated criminals to receive premium benefits, courtesy of the law-abiding, hard-working American taxpayer. Or for allowing the millions of illegal aliens, who send their “hard earned” money back “home”, to become “entitled” to “free” health care in America, courtesy of the law-abiding, hard-working legal American taxpayer.

And last but not least, not nearly enough blame is thrown at all those who choose not to afford health insurance coverage for themselves, whether on their own or via their employer benefit options, but who are more than willing to afford their smoking, alcohol, and drug habits, the very habits that virtually guarantee that they will one day need extensive health care. Like the criminals and illegal aliens, they will probably be “entitled” to it, courtesy of the law-abiding, hard-working American taxpayer who continues to bear the burden of shouldering the cost of that “entitlement”.
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True....the unacknowledged elephants in the room.

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