Healthcare Insurance -- Future Implications

Healthcare Insurance -- Future Implications Healthcare costs are growing in the United States at a rate that is completely unsustainable. Even by conservative estimates, healthcare costs will soon account for as much as forty percent of the American gross national product (Reid, 2009). Presently, Americans pay approximately $2.2 trillion in annual healthcare expenses. One major source of the problem is the dominance of a for-profit health insurance model that unnecessarily adds substantially to the cost of healthcare (Kennedy, 2006).

In addition to direct additions to cost in the form of premium fees, administrative fees and service fees, this for-profit health insurance model also increases costs by virtue of excluding many individuals whose healthcare costs are eventually paid by various government programs funded by public monies. Among other fundamental changes such as a shift toward preventative medicine and results-based compensation for healthcare providers, a public healthcare insurance or so-called "single-payor" model is likely essential to reduce the rate of healthcare cost increases and, ultimately, to lower their costs (Kennedy, 2006; Reid, 2009).

Comparing the Public and Private Healthcare Insurance Model Conservative critics of government healthcare programs typically argue that the Medicare and Medicaid programs are under-funded and notoriously inefficient (Kennedy, 2006). However, a direct comparison between the respective costs of private and public health insurance models reveals that even those supposedly "inefficient" public programs provide essentially the identical functions and services as private health insurance plans, except at approximately one-tenth the cost (Kennedy, 2006).

Whereas both Medicare and Medicaid absorb only two or three percent of the total cost of healthcare services rendered in connection with their programs, private health insurance companies add approximately ten times that amount. That means that fully $750 billion of the total $2.2 trillion in American healthcare costs actually represent profits for private health insurance companies that perform no surgery, and that never diagnose or treat a single human disease (Kennedy, 2006; Reid, 2009).

Meanwhile, without any competition, such as n the form of a public healthcare insurance system, the private healthcare insurance industry also continually increases premium fees virtually at will (Kennedy, 2006; Reid, 2009). Furthermore, by refusing policies to high-risk patients, private health insurers essentially "cherry pick" the lowest risk patients while leaving the most expensive medical services to be furnished at the public's expense by public funds available to provide healthcare for low-income individuals (Kennedy, 2006; Reid, 2009). That is why, at the very least.

The future of American healthcare insurance must include a public option (Kennedy, 2006). The Issue of Government Healthcare Insurance Lobbying The principal way that the private healthcare insurance industry maintains its control over American healthcare is through political lobbying of government representatives (Kennedy, 2006). In fact, there are approximately six healthcare industry lobbyists in Washington for every publicly.