They want your money. That’s all insurance companies want.
That’s the reason why Luigi Mangione allegedly killed United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in cold blood. I am in no position to talk about the ethics of murder, but I do know that Mangione’s act brought awareness to millions of Americans.
The healthcare industry in America is virtually incomparable to that of any other country in the world. While our Canadian neighbors enjoy the luxury of universal healthcare, we Americans are still spending more money on insurance than citizens of any other country, according to CBS news.
Shockingly, even though American healthcare is immensely more expensive, it is not better than other countries.
The healthcare services in America aren’t generally bad. Even though citizens pay out of pocket for these services, the government spends millions a year too. However, this spending doesn’t result in improvements. And with the amount of money being spent, American citizens want care that matches the price they are paying.
This creates a bigger systemic problem that starts when citizens are afraid to get the care they need because it costs them extra out-of-pocket money. On average Americans visit a doctor 4 times a year, which is less than most other high-income countries.
Avoiding care that could be beneficial isn’t healthy for us, and the problem gets worse when care is vital.
A few months ago, I had to go to the hospital because I got hurt at my lacrosse practice. It felt like the entire time I was there, extra expenses were being tacked on. I knew in the back of my mind that the screening, X-rays, and medicine were costing my parents hundreds of dollars, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Even with a decent insurance company and a minor injury, I was still aware of the money I was “wasting.” At the end of the visit, I got nothing but a diagnosis and a doctor’s note that exempted me from practice for the next week.
That happened in November. Even now, my parents haven’t received all of the charges from my visit. No one should ever be in a situation where the expenses they are paying for their safety are obscure and not presented up front.
The problem is that our system is based on profit. America is the only major economy in the world that has made healthcare into a business. These insurance companies rarely show any remorse, setting prices as high as they want.
Why should these companies be able to make a profit off of the well-being of American citizens? Healthcare is something so essential to the people that it shouldn’t be available for big companies to exploit.
The horrors of the healthcare industry have been overlooked for decades. Even though we know corruption is occurring, nothing is ever done about it. We watch the people at the top get millions and millions of dollars from suffering patients while we continue to provide them with the money they need to keep abusing the system.
This is a system that we Americans are forced to buy into – quite literally, because there is no other option.
You can get medicare if you are over 65 and have paid into the Social Security system. You can get Medicaid if you have a low income. Other than that, you’re either paying a private insurance company or in crippling debt (or both!)
Former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was implemented in 2010 to give 40 million American citizens access to healthcare. This program has been expanding since it first developed, and it was a big step in the right direction.
However, as President Donald Trump has mentioned attempting to repeal this act, we might be back to square one, with insurance companies being an even more indomitable force in our system.
When a firefighter risks their life to save someone from a burning building, they don’t ask the victim how they’re going to pay them back before being saved. But as soon as that person steps into a nearby ambulance, that’s essentially what happens.
The difference between a fire rescue and an ambulance ride? Firefighters are publicly funded by taxes, and healthcare companies have the ability to take advantage of the misfortunes of other people to make a profit. They barely let patients breathe before shoving fee, after fee, after fee down their throats.
The American healthcare system enables these corrupt companies to continue profiting off of vulnerable people, because our country can’t figure out how to establish a system that benefits the people.
It’s hard to believe that a nation that claims to be so developed and educated can’t step away from the need to profit from its citizens.
