http://www.charlotteobserver.com/136/story/618881.htmlIt's cruel to force workers who have no healthcare coverage themselves to subsidize coverage for others. As this article points out, the poor and the elderly are covered by Medicaid and Medicare. (It should be noted that the elderly are eligible for Medicare without regard for income.) The workers who pay for this through taxes on their wages frequently can't afford the very coverage that they are providing for others.
Coverage for the poor varies from state to state. In North Carolina, the Medicaid threshold for a family of 4 is $15,000 a year. In Arizona, it's $40,000. Income limits and eligibility requirements for SCHIP also vary from state to state. Under this system, it's possible for people with lower incomes to subsidize coverage for those with higher incomes. It also dooms working people with chronic illnesses to do without care while contributing to care for others.
It's important to note that much of the money allotted to SCHIP winds up in the hands of private insurance companies who manage the plans for the states. Insurance companies provide no healthcare themselves, yet increase administrative costs.
We spend enough money in this country providing care for special groups, generating profits for insurance companies, and covering the losses incurred by the uninsured to provide coverage for everyone. We're paying for something that we're not receiving.
Current plans by the government to pass a law that all people must buy private healthcare insurance would do nothing to provide better access to healthcare. It would merely makes us slaves to for-profit insurance companies, the same companies that are helping add to healthcare costs and denying access to care right now.
We need a national single-payer healthcare system, but are unlikely to get it because the insurance industry has become financially and politically powerful.
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