Health Care System Crisis
As the world-famous scholar Stanton Mehr explains “The way health insurance works is large groups of people pay relatively small amounts of money into a fund, which pays the health costs for the entire group. The idea is that most contributors to this pool are healthy people who help pay the costs for the few who are sick (Is Our Health-Care System Sick?”). Insurance is a critical element in the health care of Americans. Millions of people are going without health care, and billions of dollars are being wasted. Lack of access to affordable health insurance and rising health costs are the problems of the health care system in America.
Before 1920, doctors didn’t know enough about diseases to provide useful care to sick people therefore, they didn’t charge much. Only a few big employers offered health insurance, and everyone else paid out of their own pockets. When doctors learned more about diseases and effective treatments, they charged people more- more than what they can afford. To add on to the costs, doctors took advantage of the new medical technology and treated people in hospitals. To ease the health care problem, various plans were combined under the auspices of the American Hospital (AHA) and became known as Blue Cross. According to Goda, “Blue Cross insurance was considered desirable because they provided benefits to people in need, benefits from special state-sponsored legislation that made them tax-exempt and nonprofit corporations” (Goda 111). When Blue Cross first started they charged everyone the same premiums. However, when private for profit insures entered the market they charged premiums based on age, gender, health status, and pre-existing medical conditions. Private insures only insured healthy people and avoided the sick ones, which meant more profit for the company. The poor, day laborers, workers for small