How can low-income people *afford* lower cost health insurance?

Any time I bought insurance, it was thru my employer. Insurance for my family would cost around $ 1000 per month. Thru the employer, it cost $ 450 per month. I discovered this when I changed jobs. They sent a nice letter stating what full coverage would cost. I telling this story so people will understand that middle class people can’t afford insurance unless it comes with the benefits of the job.

The problem begins with employers not offering benefits. Most of the companies paying minimum wage have a lousy insurance plan at a high cost. Hence, these people don’t enroll.

The cost of insurance is dictated by the cost of doing business. There are two major problems with healthcare here. First, the people who can’t afford it will go to the emergency room. But, when the person seeks ER treatment, the cost is $ 500 for a visit instead of a regular visit of $ 65. They make promises to pay, but they can’t. The hospital has to charge the people with insurance more to even out the costs.

The other problem is lawsuits. I am not referring to the lawsuit itself, but the reprecussions from it. For example, when my wives (one is an ex) were pregnant with our first three children, the doctors didn’t do an ultrasound. The last one had an ultrasound. I asked the technician performing the ultrasound why we have to do this. He said, “If a doctor does not perform tests that are available to the area he works in, if something goes wrong, he will lose the law suit because he did not do everything possible.”

What does this translate to? The medical costs are constantly rising because the doctors and hospitals have to cover their butts. So, what does the insurance companies do. Raise their rates. As they say, it runs downhill.

The solution is not for the government to provide healthcare. The government is already into too many programs. The American companies need to offer better benefits at a better price.

And, the people need to take better care of themselves. I work for a fast food company in Texas. Most of the employees are paid minimum wage or slightly higher. There is a high percent of people who drink, smoke, and their is some drug abuse going on. There is a high percent of people being overweight. There is a high percent of single mothers. A lot of the mothers that still have their husbands, the men are worthless scumbags. I don’t believe the government should bale them out.

Unfortunately, the better paid people are not any better taking care of themselves. How does the smoking, beer drinking, overweight, never exercise people affect insurance? They are seeking medical assistance, but at the cost of the insurance company.

Think about this. History was made recently with the indentical quads being born. These were Canadians. Yet, they had to come to the USA to receive treatment because the hospitals were full and not able to provide the special treatment. It appears their system doesn’t work well.

The problem is the average American wants to sit on their fat butt, doing nothing to improve their lifestyle, demanding more from the government. Yes, we could scrape the NASA. Or, we could reduce the military spending. But, is this the solution? Let’s dump all of the programs but healthcare and welfare? Let’s not do anything unless we do for our own people first? There are too many people scamming the government now.

We are in a situation where there are no solutions. It’s hopeless, unless the American public decides to make it better themselves, starting with themselves.