The state of the economy has become the number one concern of the average family. A decade ago, family health insurance coverage was almost taken for granted. If you worked for a large corporation, one of the advantages was that your employer provided health insurance as a standard part of the salaried employee's perks.
Several years ago, the Federal government enacted tax legislation which was supposed to encourage small businesses to provide group health insurance coverage to their employees, with a tax break incentive. This legislation did little to improve the picture. Who knows why? Perhaps the tax incentives were simply not cost-effective enough for the small business owner to implement. Large corporations started cutting back on their family health insurance coverage. Today, nearly half of American workers have no health insurance coverage at all. With all of the other obligations a family needs to meet, health insurance goes by the wayside. It's simply no longer affordable.
A recent news piece, on a major television network, told the story of a retired couple on a fixed income. Their carefully tended retirement funds had taken a big hit, so their monthly budget was far less than they'd anticipated. As is the case with older people, they had health conditions to monitor and medications they couldn't do without. They found it necessary to adjust their other expenses such that they could pay a $2800 yearly premium for their family health insurance coverage. When weighed against a potential $30,000 hospital bill, the health insurance premium came out ahead, in terms of living, versus dying for lack of adequate medical care. From a purely humanitarian standpoint, this is indeed a deplorable situation.
When you can't afford family health insurance coverage, because the other, more basic necessities of life, such as housing, utilities and food eat up all of your income, your family's health is sure to suffer. Regular checkups and preventative health care are no longer affordable. You call your doctor for emergencies only. This clearly opens the door for life threatening diseases to develop. The eventual fallout of a lack of family health insurance coverage is staggering. If you have dental problems that are left unattended due to a lack of funds, the consequences can be dire. You may develop heart problems, or at the very least, lose a tooth or two, as a result of inadequate health care. Kids and the elderly are particularly vulnerable groups.
The lack of adequate family health insurance coverage has a definite impact on the society as a whole. Lost work days and a generally worsened health status costs the country, both in productivity and humanitarian aspects.
Looking around the rest of the Western world, we are far behind in providing affordable family health insurance coverage. The politicians and pharmaceutical companies might almost be suspected of being 'in cahoots', with the American public being the losers.
We need to make the politicians understand that health insurance is a priority for the average person. Our country should be able to provide universal family health insurance coverage. Politicians should take a moment to realize that health problems ultimately decrease productivity and end up costing the society as a whole. They might also take a step back from their own fulsome health coverage and understand that alleviating human suffering among our own people is a worthy objective. Write your congressional representative today! - 15343
Several years ago, the Federal government enacted tax legislation which was supposed to encourage small businesses to provide group health insurance coverage to their employees, with a tax break incentive. This legislation did little to improve the picture. Who knows why? Perhaps the tax incentives were simply not cost-effective enough for the small business owner to implement. Large corporations started cutting back on their family health insurance coverage. Today, nearly half of American workers have no health insurance coverage at all. With all of the other obligations a family needs to meet, health insurance goes by the wayside. It's simply no longer affordable.
A recent news piece, on a major television network, told the story of a retired couple on a fixed income. Their carefully tended retirement funds had taken a big hit, so their monthly budget was far less than they'd anticipated. As is the case with older people, they had health conditions to monitor and medications they couldn't do without. They found it necessary to adjust their other expenses such that they could pay a $2800 yearly premium for their family health insurance coverage. When weighed against a potential $30,000 hospital bill, the health insurance premium came out ahead, in terms of living, versus dying for lack of adequate medical care. From a purely humanitarian standpoint, this is indeed a deplorable situation.
When you can't afford family health insurance coverage, because the other, more basic necessities of life, such as housing, utilities and food eat up all of your income, your family's health is sure to suffer. Regular checkups and preventative health care are no longer affordable. You call your doctor for emergencies only. This clearly opens the door for life threatening diseases to develop. The eventual fallout of a lack of family health insurance coverage is staggering. If you have dental problems that are left unattended due to a lack of funds, the consequences can be dire. You may develop heart problems, or at the very least, lose a tooth or two, as a result of inadequate health care. Kids and the elderly are particularly vulnerable groups.
The lack of adequate family health insurance coverage has a definite impact on the society as a whole. Lost work days and a generally worsened health status costs the country, both in productivity and humanitarian aspects.
Looking around the rest of the Western world, we are far behind in providing affordable family health insurance coverage. The politicians and pharmaceutical companies might almost be suspected of being 'in cahoots', with the American public being the losers.
We need to make the politicians understand that health insurance is a priority for the average person. Our country should be able to provide universal family health insurance coverage. Politicians should take a moment to realize that health problems ultimately decrease productivity and end up costing the society as a whole. They might also take a step back from their own fulsome health coverage and understand that alleviating human suffering among our own people is a worthy objective. Write your congressional representative today! - 15343
About the Author:
Charlie Reese likes giving health and horoscope advice on his love horoscopes website weekly.
