Let us not confuse apples and oranges in this debate. The debate is about health insurance coverage, not health care. Federal law requires that no hospital turn away any individual needing care regardless of their ability to pay. So, no one in this country is without healthcare.

Now insurance is a different story. Premiums for insurance have increased over the years as the cost of healthcare has increased. So how do we correct this problem. First, we must identify why costs have increased. One of the major problems is the fact that many people who have medical coverage in which they have low co-pays, i.e. medicaid/medicare and other government sponsored programs, continue to abuse the system. Since these individuals will pay only a $3.00 copay instead of waiting to make an appointment with their primary care physician, they will use the emergency room for non emergency complaints, i.e. my knee hurts, I have a sore throat, I have a cough, I have diarrhea, etc. An individual with health insurance will pay on average a $100 co-pay for using the emergency room and a $25 co-pay for going to the doctors office, these individuals tend to go to the doctors. Now, since those who pay the $3.00 use the emergency room for non-emergency illnesses, the hospital must be able to make up for the loss of revenue, so in turn they increase the cost of care.

The solution is an easy fix, increase the copay for medicaid/medicare and other government sponsored program for using the emergency room. Under the current system their copay is the same regardless, instead the government program should mimic the private industry, charging an increased co-pay for the emergency room. By doing this, the misuse of the emergency room will decrease, and in turn, the hospitals will have no need to increase costs to cover revenue expenditures.

Second, the lack of available coverage to small businesses. Large companies are able to provide insurance to their members at lower costs due to the simple fact that by having more people they can lower the costs, small businesses are at a disadvantage. The President has already announced a program to help in this regards, allowing small businesses to band together to get coverage for their employees. Increasing the number of policies will decrease the costs of the premiums. A simple case of supply and demand. This is a program that will help to provide coverage to some 20 million of the currently uninsured. One simple reform and we can eliminate almost half of all those who are uninsured.

Third, there are some 8.3 million children who do not have health insurance, however, every state in the union provides health coverage for children and it is even covered under medicaid. Taking this into consideration, this reduces our total of uncovered to 19 million.

Fourth, the largest group of individuals without insurance is those who are 18 - 24 years of age. Now the question is why is this? Could it be that these individuals choose not to pay premiums because they feel it is unnecessary??? Truthfully, if you are young, unmarried and do not have children, do you consider the need for health insurance, or is this a bill you choose not to incur? Before we make a statement that there are 47 million people without coverage, should we not first determine how many without coverage are so because of choice. A young, unmarried person without children are also unlikely to have life insurance. Could it be that these individuals do not feel they need this coverage. Perhaps they feel that they will not get sick or will not need coverage, and choose not to enroll. I work with several individuals who are in this category, and none of them enroll in the coverage provided by our employer because they do not feel the need to have the coverage. How many people will this take off the rolls? 10 million or more most likely. Hmmm three simple steps and already I have shown how we can reduce the number of the uncovered to under 10%.

Now government sponsored coverage, just simple common sense solutions. Being a veteran I have seen the results of government sponsored healthcare. If you thought the rules and regulations of the HMOs were bad, wait until the government gets involved, six months for a routing appointment, a year wait for an MRI.

If government sets the price for healthcare, which is what they will do if the nationalize the system, problems will arise. Why do you think that the United States has the state of the art systems we have??? We have lead the world in new treatments, new drugs and new technology in the medical field, exactly because we have a private system.

dmk