The Economic Club of Grand Rapids

Spring 2010 Essay Contest

Tyler Rafferty

1555 Pinedale Drive Hasting, Michigan

Thornapple Kellogg High School

Health care is the basis on which all other forms of economic and social aspects of life

operate. Without the health of workers, politicians, CEO’s, or consumers, the economy of a

country would fail. With rising health problems across most demographics of the United States

population the health care debate on how to provide more adequate health care for its citizens is

currently heated in the United States Government. The debate is split between to generally basic

beliefs: Let competition between insurance companies create better health coverage and policies,

or give the government authority to distribute the health coverage to its citizens. Which method

is more efficient? Should more control be given to the government in order to oversee the

distribution of health and insure herd immunity among the population, or should the private

industry provide better coverage than its competitors and sell that coverage only to consumers

who are in need?

Although deciding which country is the “healthiest” is hard, there is some consensuses

that the United States is one of the best countries in the world (excluding preventive care, and

actual health) to get medical care. Post industrial revolution and current technological revolution

has propelled the medical field in the United States to this position. However, that does not take

into an account of people who actual receive medical treatment. There are approximately forty-

six million Americans who are not insured. That is sixteen percent of the population of the

United States of American who go without health insurance everyday. With rising cost of health

care, that number is expected to increase. This pushes the uninsured to the lower end of the

population; those who are of the lower class. This segment of the population also works most of

the menial jobs in America: Food Service Industry, Manual Labor, and other minimum wage

jobs. This sector of workers is the ones most likely to touch and handle money and common

monetary goods.

In a disaster scenario, a worker in the city contracts a bad virus or dangerous bacteria,

due to long hours he/she is exhausted and his/her immune system cannot fight off the infection.

An uninsured individual is afraid to see a doctor even though the symptoms he/she is

experiencing is greater than any flu or cold she as ever had, and therefore returns to work

spreading the disease and causing a possible epidemic. With health insurance, patient X could

have seen a doctor and gotten treatment for his/her illness preventing the epidemic. However,

patient X cannot get health insurance because he/she cannot afford insurance. Even if he/she

could afford, it is doubtful that he/she would qualify for health insurance. Patient X works a

menial job with little exercise due to the nature of the job. After working at least eight hours at a

fast food restaurant, and probably overtime to pay rent and education, patient X leaves for his/her

apartment and eats food that contains “empty calories”. This is because this is the food most

easily obtained by a minimum wage earner worker on a tight schedule. Patient X, due to the long

hours, does not have time for shopping and cooking. The effort and time required to eat and live

healthy is blocked by the economic need for the only job he/she qualifies for. This puts a strain

on all other systems in the city and subsequently the country. Emergency care for these citizens

comes from taxes out of the pocket book of other American citizens. Millions of people are like

patient X, trying to get by, living from paycheck to paycheck, and can’t afford to take sick days.

The costs of patient X being uninsured are seen partly in the costs of those who get sick from

patient X and now must pay to keep themselves healthy. Though uninsured, patient X has a great

impact health care. Those who have health care must pay for the coverage provided to the sick

by their provider. More than not, this cost is higher than insuring patient X. But do to the free

market, insurance companies will not insurance patient X because of: body mass index,

socioeconomic class, lifestyle, etc. The list goes on and describes many Americans in today’s

society. Insurance companies will act in their own best interests by only insuring those who are

not likely to get seriously sick or injured. Those who are go uninsured and spread sickness and

disease. This is backwards in comparison with the humanitarian goals of health care. The sick

and likely to be sick are the ones who need Primary and Preventative health care. By only

insuring the citizens who keep healthy, stats on healthcare are skewed in favor of the free market.

By insuring the upper class but not the more at-risk lower class, the health insurance companies

make a profit but do no action to the name under which they operate, “health”. Obesity health

concerns, like patient X who does not get exercise working a sedentary job in the city, accounts

for and estimated seventy-five billion dollars. More than half of this is picked up by taxpayers,

who are most likely already insured, through government funded (but still independent) health

care programs like Medicare and Medicaid. To make a profit in the market of health care is to

not help the consumers in health care.

In order to provide guaranteed health care to the general population, there must be a large

supply of primary and preventative physicians. For more people to take the time and resources to

go through school and become medical doctors there must be rewards for that career choice. For

that to happen medical doctors must be able to make money consistently, this is where private

insurance proposes an obstacle. With insurance companies trying to find ways to make a profit

by not paying their consumers’ costs, and the patients not having the money on hand, there is a

lack of interest in this particular job field directly impacting the health care industry. This is

where the impact of publicly funded and/or subsidized health care can make a huge difference.

Where the private industry refuses to insure sixteen percent or more of the work force,

government funded health care can cover them. Funded by direct costs [taxes] instead of the,

probably higher, implied costs of emergency rooms, health care funded by the government

would make a humanitarian difference in its country. Also, as a result of government health care,

employers would be able to increase wages paid to their employees. Currently, almost all

employers cover their employees, or at least give a health care option to their employees; with

publicly funded health care through collected government taxes, there would be more money

available to pay wages, whether hourly or salary. Any extra taxes needed to be collected by the

government to put to work in the health care industry would be significantly less than the

increase in wages and the stimulus that would provide the American Economy. Without the fear

of buying health insurance for his/her self and the need to provide a health insurance option to its

employees, small businesses would be more willing to hire employees. In a recession, this

increase in the money flow among the lower and middle class would trigger a growth in the

economy.

It is a common belief in the health profession to say, “The best chance to beat a disease is

to catch it early”. Most private insurance policies do not allow for sufficient preventative care.

Instead, health problems are caught late requiring more expensive treatment and innovative

surgeries that could have been adverted in primary and preventative care. These costs are seen as

implied costs put upon the taxpayers who pay for uninsured emergency care. Also, as a result of

private insurance, physicians must take time from there job and lives to deal with health plans

and insurance companies instead of treating patients. According to

http://www.healthreformwatch.com practices spent an average of $68,274 four dollars per

physician per year interacting with health plans. That is more than most uninsured people make a

year. The article goes on to say, “Primary care physicians, especially those in small practices,

spend larger amounts of time interacting with plans than those in other specialties.” A universal

health care plan provided by the government would reduce the time needed to be spent with

plans and insurance companies. Through publicly funded health care provided by the

government, the paper work necessary to care for patients would dramatically reduce by almost

completely disappearing or at most be a standard form for all patients. This would reduce the

time physicians have to spend away from treating patients and focus more on the health and care

of those who need it.

The United States should adopt a government run health care plan. If it was to do so, the

health of its citizens would go up, costs of health care would decrease, and overall morale of the

country would noticeably increase. Health care by government for a country of more than three

hundred million is necessary.