Healthcare

Healthcare is certainly something on a lot of people's minds(or at least in a lot of politician's rhetoric). Health insurance is a great thing. To know that one can afford the wonders of modern medicine if someone is in need of them is almost as important as the existence of the medicine itself. However, our healthcare system is quite frankly not healthy. The problem is a complex one because health insurance is not a pure market. Large businesses have to get their full time employees health insurance, and can write off that outlay when they pay their taxes. The problems is, this creates reason for businesses to spend a lot on health care. With a lot of businesses willing to pay a lot for insurance, insurance companies got smart and started to raise there prices ever so slightly over time. Those price hikes have added up, but the pressure on prices are two fold. Hospitals are for the most part paid by insurance companies. Hospitals are in a pinch because they are required to care for patients, but also have bills to pay. This makes hospitals pass the bills from the people who can't pay (the uninsured) to the people who can pay(the insured). They do this in the form of ten dollar aspirin and band aids and what not. Additionally the way insurance companies pay gives hospitals even more reason to jack up prices. An insurance company and a hospital have a contract that lists the most the insurance company will pay for procedures and what not. If the hospital charges less the insurance company pays less, but if the hospital charges more the insurance company still only pays its top price. This means that hospitals charge the highest price any one of their insurers is willing to pay for every procedure. Factor in the rising costs of malpractice insurance, and it all adds up to very expensive healthcare. Universal healthcare is one solution that would alleviate many of the problems. Many Republicans are apt to say "let the market work for you." However this requires a more nuanced solution than most Republicans seem to acknowledge. To alleviate pressure on hospitals there needs to be some form of healthcare available to everyone. This could come in the form of a mandatory plan whose cost are rebated. Also the spending of corporations, which has meant profits bonanza for health insurance companies, also must be addressed. This might mean restructuring the tax code. Doing this could also create some revenue which could be used to help small businesses pay for their employees healthcare. And the problem of hospital-insurance company contracts as well as malpractice insurance both are much trickier to handle. So in conclusion real solutions that maintain the market require changes in tax structure, and miss some areas universal healthcare might address. So what appears to be the simplest and most effective solution is some form of Universal healthcare. Naturally this may not be perfect, but it is a step towards a fairer and more efficient solution too healthcare in America.