More than half of all bankruptcies in the US are over medical bills AND most of those folks have insurance ("Costly illnesses trigger about half of all personal bankruptcies, and health insurance offers no protection against ending up penniless, according to findings from a Harvard University study" http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/02/national/main671145.shtml

Hospitals especially and some docs have become so aggressive about medical bills that that bankruptcy issue is likely to get worse (http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/nov2007/db20071120_397008.htm)

The corruption of the HANDFUL of large insurers is appalling and the government is impotent in resolving this issue (http://www.newsmax.com/medicine_men/medical_insurance/2008/01/03/61543.html)

The special treatment of insurance companies is unacceptable. No other industry gets the multiple breaks they do. Jamie Court’s Making a Killing book is an eye-opener (http://www.makingakilling.org/contents.html). Why should it be that when a person’s insurance comes via his employer (as most peoples’ do) that the insurer has such protections for refusal to pay for treatment the patient needs, can’t afford without insurance, and has reason to believe IS covered results in the patient’s death? Such a suit can’t be brought if the person dies; if the person lives and is in a world of hurt, all the patient can recover is the cost of the denied procedure. Talk about an incentive to NOT provide treatment!

This is not just the author’s imagination. Linda Peeno, MD testified that SHE had often denied treatment JUST to save the insurance company money (http://www.thenationalcoalition.org/DrPeenotestimony.html)

Furthermore:
"the vast majority of health insurance policies are through for-profit stock companies. They are in the process of “shedding lives” as some term it when “undesirable” customers are lost through various means, including raising premiums and co-pays and decreasing benefits (Britt, “Health insurers getting bigger cut of medical dollars,” 15 October 2004, investors.com). That same Investors Business Daily article from 2004 noted the example of Anthem, another insurance company. They said the top five executives (not just the CEO) received an average of an 817 percent increase in compensation between 2000 and 2003. The CEO, for example, had his compensation go from $2.5 million to $25 million during that time period. About $21 million of that was in stock payouts, the article noted.

A 2006 article, “U.S. Health Insurance: More Market Domination, More CEO Compensation”
(hcrenewal.blogspot.com) notes that in 56 percent of 294 metropolitan areas one insurer “controls more than half the business in health maintenance organization and preferred provider networks underwriting." In addition to having the most enrollees, they also are the biggest purchasers of health care and set the price and coverage terms. “’The results is double-digit premium increases from 2001 and 2004—peaking with a 13.9 percent jump in 2003—soaring well above inflation and wages increases.’" Where is all that money going? The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article looking at the compensation of the CEO of UnitedHealth Group. His salary and bonus is $8 million annually. He has benefits such as the use of a private jet. He has stock-option fortunes worth $1.6 billion."
–Save America, Save the World by Cassandra Nathan pp. 127-128

I really could go on, but the case has been made that because of the meddling of the government AND the DOMINATION of the industry by a handful of insurers who deny what they SHOULD cover and reap MASSIVE profits and exert unacceptable levels of control over the market, that the uninsured are extremely vulnerable AND the insured do NOT have the coverage they believe they do IF they become extremely ill.

This leads a lot of folks to go off in the WRONG direction and scream for UHC–Universal Health Care. It does NOT work. It ALWAYS is RATIONED and BANKRUPT.

Look at the oldest such system, Britain’s:
"“Staff are being laid off, and deficits are at an all time high (£1.07bn for 2005-2006)” (Hazel Blears, Labour Party Chair and Minister Without Portfolio, labourachievements.blogspot.com/2006/08/23-investment-in-nhs.html).
In the National Review Online article, Coburn & Herzlinger state “more than 20,000 Brits would not have died from cancer in the U.S.” Just recently Alex Smallwood of the BMA (British Medical Association) was quoted in the Scotsman as saying: “’Rationing is reduction in choice. Rationing has become a necessary evil. We need to formalise rationing to prevent an unregulated, widening, postcode-lottery of care. Government no longer has a choice.’” (Moss, “NHS rationing is ‘necessary evil,’ says doctors,” 26 June 2007).

It’s true in EVERY other country with the government running the system. In fact, they are ALL either ignoring the private options springing up OR foisting MORE off on the private systems. In the US we have pockets of UHC as with Medicare. This is a Ponzi scheme and the crazies in the government want to balance it on the backs of the DOCTORS:
In the US, Medicare is going bankrupt. In 1998, Medicare premiums were $43.80 and in 2008 will be $96.40–up 120%. "Medigap" insurance is common because of the 20% co-pay required for service. Medicare HMOs are common because they reduce that burden without an extra charge in many cases. HOWEVER, many procedures which used to have no or a low co-pay NOW cost the full 20% for the HMO Medicare patient. ALSO the prescription coverage they tended to offer has been REDUCED in many cases to conform to the insane "donut hole" coverage of the feds. Doctors are leaving Medicare because of the low and slow pay AND because the crazy government wants to "balance" their Ponzi scheme on the backs of doctors.
"That dark cloud lurking over the shoulder of every Massachusetts physician is Medicare. If Congress does not act, doctors’ payments from Medicare will be cut by about 5 percent annually, beginning next year through 2012, creating a financial hailstorm that would wreak havoc with already strained practices.

Cumulatively, the proposed cuts represent a 31 percent reduction in Medicare reimbursement. If the cuts are adjusted for practice-cost inflation, the American Medical Association says Medicare payment rates to physicians in 2013 would be less than half of what they were in 1991."
http://www.massmed.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=vs_mar05_top&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=11037

It’s far worse with Medicaid which has even fewer doctors who will accept that than Medicare.

So what to do? Well the solution IS the free market, which we only have pockets of in the US, but those pockets provide what all sane men want: accessible, affordable care.

Read:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/0217er17.html
A doctor owned and run hospital that sees everyone gets care, no matter what happens to the bottom line.

http://www.simplecare.com/ a doctor-driven group where reasonable rates are charged.

Note you can go to a walk-in clinic at Wal-Mart or CVS or the like in many cities and get many of the most typical reasons for seeing a doc addressed for under $100.

The price of LASIK has DROPPED dramatically over a decade. Plastic surgery is CHEAP. Compare a major procedure like a tummy tuck with the bill an uninsured patient will get for a medically necessary appendectomy WITHOUT complications.

What’s the plan then? There IS one, but politicians don’t seem to want to listen to this one (I’ve been emailing pols for a while now since I found the plan AND I fear too many on YA don’t bother to check it out, but THIS is sensible):
There IS a sensible plan that does NOT force patients on it with fear of fines; does NOT impose the costs on employers; does NOT raise our taxes; and DOES resolve another abuse of the taxpayer in its funding, provides for preventative care (moral and economical), and would prevent bankruptcies (more than half are caused by medical bills and most of those folks have insurance). Check it out:
http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.html
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Just found this link showing that your pre Reagan figure of 71% insured (Ihad heard a higher figure but cannot find it now) has went down to 59% in 2005 sounds like a crises to me.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/26/ap/health/mainD8H7PS782.shtml

Nowadays, you pay or get reported to the agencies, payments have to be made much faster, if you get behind you are reported to the credit rating agencies which did yot used to be the case, medical bills were put in a special category. That was back around 1972, whe uninsured rates were higher because healthcare was affordable

I bet a lot of the uninsured folks would just love to take personal responsibility but the tide has shifted so far in favor of the creditors that you just get beaten down, even if you are just having trouble with the copays.

Health care costs have increased way beyond the rate of inflation, I know because I have lived through it.

So your statistics may be accurate but are only a SMALL PART of the picture. And of course my core belief that you can judge a society by the way it treats its unfortunates,

Sorry this is incoherent, I just get tired of people with part of the facts who haven’t lived through anything spouting off as if they were the authorities. There is lots more to this issue as well, but that would make for a longer response than I like to see here.
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The issue is certainly tied into the whole concept of healthcare being a business in a capitalistic society. Don’t get me wrong, I am for capitalism AND I am for personal responsibility. But particularly for small business entrepreneurs and people who have to buy insurance independently – OR have pre-existing conditions, the premiums are NOT very competitive. They are exhorbitant. Often it is necessary to accompany the insurance w/ the gamble of a high deductible, in order to afford the premium. Finally, you surely have read for many years & capped off recently w/ the case in Glendale, CA, of the insurance companies propencity to refuse claims based on "undeclared pre-existing conditions". (In Glendale, CA the 19 year old woman died while waiting for an appeal for a life and death transplant operation…it took the insurance co. so long to respond – MONTHS – that the day they finally "changed" their verdict, the young woman died.)

Many times, people who I’ve read that express your point of view, are firmly against the idea of either revamping the health care system in the U.S. AND certainly against the idea of socialized medicine ie: Canada. But on Yahoo, this week, a researched article detailed (you can probably still link to this…) why Canada, Australia and other countries are far more advanced in healthcare services, technique and in actually saving lives than the US.

Additionally, please consider this fact in regard to drug companies. Because of the high cost of medicine, and the non-competitive way that medicine is covered under quite a few insurance policies, many are turning to ordering their drug from Canada & other countries. How is this helping our free enterprise economy?

I would love to buy insurance, and feel secure that I do not have to quibble and wait months for okays on coverage. I do not mind paying my way. However inspite of the fact that we have coverage (the best that we can afford), I can honestly say that our middle class family is one healthcare crisis away from bancruptcy. We are in good health, not over weight, do not suffer from any of the sins of self indulgence (smoking, drinking, etc.) and exercise regularly. Please keep your fingers crossed for us. I think in these ways we are taking personal responsibility….we are very fortunate – last Friday, my daughter needed an MRI for a running related injury – our insurance – a PPO – wouldn’t cover it. It cost us $750 on the spot & out of pocket….yet there are so many others in just slightly less fortunate circumstances, that could not hold their head above water w/ just one refused claim or one accident or long term illness….Reform is of essence….even if it is not your current experience.
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And still, my Insurance is getting more expensive, covers less, and is more convoluted than ever before. I this were a government health program, at least I could vote someone out of office.

It’s time we caught up to the rest of the world and get a national Health care plan.
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go Hillary go…get your people to run with that ball..for you..everybody knows it’s the only initiative you ever championed
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So you’re happy that in a country as wealthy as ours that anyone doesn’t have coverage, let alone 47 million? What you’re completely ignoring is th facts that the cost of health care has sky rocketed.

BTW, your statistics are meaningless without a source.
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