| By Bob Weaver
America by far spends the most money on health care than any country in the world.
America is getting less and less for the health care dollar.
Insurance companies, health care providers, lawyers and government have failed to address the national health care
crisis
Everyone is "hurting" and "losing" money. Everyone else is to blame.
Fewer and fewer West Virginians are covered by insurance, with fewer and fewer employers able to pay the premiums.
In West Virginia, government employees may be the last to have coverage.
Individuals and families can no longer afford the premiums, which now cost between $7,000 and $9,000 annually for single
coverage, and are predicted to rise to $18,000 a year for families by 2008, according to Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
At least one in three West Virginians will not have insurance, and many others will have inadequate coverage.
Managed care, even for those with some insurance, has created a gigantic cost-shifting burden, asking those with insurance
to cover those without.
Insurance companies have created another company (which they generally own) to administrate their pay-outs, which they
once did themselves. It is called Managed Care. It was created to "help the insured and reduce costs." Don't think
twice!
The cost of prescription drugs has become unbearable for most families, with drug companies selling their product abroad for
a faction of what Americans pay. They blame cost of research, which has mostly been funded by government.
Washington is interested in a few stop-gap measures, that's all.
The health care industry, mostly insurance companies and drug companies, have shot down every effort to bring health care
back to American families.
Meanwhile, the snowball is about to crash the tree, and there is little excitement in America's middle or working class.
The only excitement seems to occur when an insured person or family loses their coverage, and even that fades quickly.
Maybe, they have given up.
Rural areas with high unemployment and lots of "working poor" people will get hurt the worst.
The broad array of rural health care now provided this community by Minnie Hamilton Health
Care Center, will become a challenge, if not impossible.
The problem looms bigger than all of us and no one is solving it.
Read more about the healthcare crisis...
Everybody At Risk
The Sunday Gazette-Mail
| 
