When I was growing up I had, what some people would call, sticky fingers. I liked to steal things. I know. Very shocking. I didn't steal anything big like cars, jewelry or panda bears. I stuck with smaller things like candy (keep the fat jokes to yourself), cassette tapes and hearts. OK, I didn't really steal any hearts. My parents busted me once. It was then that they told me stores had to increase prices to make up for the money they lost from my theft. Their point made sense and has stuck in my head to this day. Don't get me wrong. I still continued to steal but I started to feel bad about it. It wasn't until I was almost caught by legitimate authority figures that I decided to stop. I was 16 years old. In retrospect, it was dumb. Did I really need that Firehouse cassingle? No, but I did need that PM Dawn one.
After I gave up stealing I didn't give much thought to that idea of prices increasing because of theft (there has to be a better term for that). It wasn't until I moved to Baltimore about 10 years later that it popped back into my head. I went into a locally owned convenience store near my home to buy some potato chips. The price of the chips was higher than I expected. I paid for them and moved on but the next time I was at the grocery story I compared prices. Sure enough, they were more expensive at the little mom and pop store. A few days later I returned to the convenience store. While I was paying for my chips I asked the woman behind the counter why there were more expensive. She said it's because they always lose money from people stealing things from their store so they had to up the prices. I couldn't believe it. My parents were correct.
You'd be surprised at how similar the health care system is to that little convenience store. Granted, a local hospital will get a hell of a lot more money than the store, but I think you'll get my point. Doctors and hospitals will provide care to anyone that walks through the doors. It doesn't matter who you are, how much money you have or if you have insurance. It's their duty. That doesn't mean their services is free. No matter who you are, how much money you have or if you have insurance you will still be responsible to pay the bill for the treatment you received. And those bills aren't very cheap. Not everyone can afford them and some of those bills go unpaid. In fact, a study done in 2009 linked over 62% of all bankruptcy filings to medical bills. Crazy right? People are filing for bankruptcy because they want to be healthy.
The health care field isn't totally at fault here but it does seem like they charge a little more than they need to. That brings up an interesting idea. Do hospital services cost so much money because they want to rape us for our money or is it because they're just trying to make back some of the lost cash? I was reading an article in the Baltimore Sun that said Mercy Medical Center had $40 million in unpaid bills in 2010. Mercy's chief executive now has the task of figuring in that number while he puts together a budget for the upcoming year. He admitted that much of that lost income will be passed on to the rest of the patients through raised rates.
That sounds oddly familiar. A service is raising the cost of its goods because people are "stealing" from it. I don't think "stealing" is the appropriate term to use here. Someone who gets shot while walking to their car doesn't have a choice in the matter but they still need to pay for the medical treatment. One of the major ideas in the highly discussed federal health care reform law aims to end such increases. It's a central theory. The law wants everyone to be insured. If everyone is insured, hospitals and other health care professionals won't have to worry about their patients not making payments.
While I am in support of it, I understand that the health care reform law isn't a perfect piece of legislation. There never has been a "perfect" piece of legislation. My brain is incapable of understanding why so many people want it abolished. The main goals of the bill would do nothing but help ease the financial burden on patients. How is that a bad thing? Some people say they don't want their tax dollars to pay for another person's insurance. I think that's understandable but they need to look at the numbers. A few extra dollars out of my paycheck will help someone else get medical care that they normally couldn't afford. If they were to get that care without insurance they probably wouldn't be able to pay for it. If they can't pay for it, the medical costs will go up and the next time you or I were to go to the hospital, we'd be screwed by the prices. It's a very give and take relationship. I'd rather give a little to help benefit another person than have the hospitals take a lot out of my wallet.
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