The current state of healthcare in the United States has become a huge mess. As a result, the system is slowly breaking down in all components, especially the Marketplace, and individual health insurance companies. Premiums and deductibles have skyrocketed to the point where average Americans simply cannot afford it, even if they work full-time. If someone can afford the premiums, chances are they can't afford to actually receive treatment. For the majority of Americans, the sad fact is that they cannot afford to be sick.
Premiums were affordable years ago
I actually have positive memories of our Health Care System 15 years ago. Health insurance was a given perk in the package if you had full-time employment. There was not a need to get approval for every medication, test, specialist and visit. The monthly premium for a family was reasonable and affordable, as were doctor visits and medication co-payments. I didn't worry about paying for my health insurance or my other bills as I had enough to cover all.
Due to the launch of Obamacare, employers are now offering less payment for health insurance premiums. That is, if they provide health insurance at all for employees. This debacle with our health insurance system lead me to quit my last full-time corporate job.
The president of the company arbitrarily decided how much each individual employee would receive in health care premiums paid by the company. The amount each employee received was based on their position. It turned out that the high paid executives and their families had their health insurance premiums paid in full by the company, while entry level employees had nothing paid by the company.
Everyone in between had their premium rate decided by the president at his discretion. This income based discrimination with individual employees under the same corporate umbrella is unfair and unethical.
Favoring the wealthy
President Trump's repeal of our health care system seems to favor the wealthy. Similar to my last employer, Trump's concept favors the well to do, while lower income individuals will pay more.
It is becoming exactly what the legal system has become, where the wealthy are the only group where competent representation is available and affordable. If this pre-existing condition bill comes to fruition, premiums could rise more than twice as high than the already sky high monthly rates. Americans will be penalized for being sick, just like a bank will charge you a fee for not maintaining a minimum balance in your account. The same aberrant principle applies here: people are going to be charged more because they are sick and because they can't afford it, like a punishment. The American health care system needs restructuring implemented by people who know what it's like being an average American working and supporting families. It doesn't need reformation from a billionaire with unlimited resources where nothing is unattainable.
