With health insurance issues coming to the fore in the recent presidential election, people are starting to realize a lot of facts about it. This, in turn, has led to more questions being asked than answered. For example, why is the cost of health care rising twice as fast as inflation? Also, even though health insurance costs have increased, why are people generally more dissatisfied with the coverage they receive?
Malpractice Insurance Costs
The medical profession has been undergoing many changes for some time and many of these changes can and do affect the cost and availability of health insurance. For example, malpractice insurance has been on the rise for decades and legislators have been unable to institute any kind of substantive malpractice reform.
lawyer lobbies
Doctors and patients alike want to see the cost of malpractice insurance reduced, but one group in particular has stood firm in the way of any change and it is the lawyers and their powerful lobbyists who see lucrative malpractice lawsuits as sacred dairy cows.
Doctor pay cuts
Then there is a growing physician shortage that is plaguing the US health care system. Congress recently cut Medicare payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients by 10%. So it seems that as Americans ask doctors more, they are willing to pay less.
Lack of electoral intelligence
Issues like gay marriage and whether technological evolution or creationism in high schools seem to have a precedent in Congress for real viable healthcare reform. America’s top voters wave their flags and attend anti-gay marriage rallies at their churches and then complain when catastrophic medical expenses leave them living in a trailer, when all they have is their own stupidity to blame.