A healthcare medical cost crisis appears to be on the horizon for all Americans.
Under-65 People Adding to Overall Healthcare Medical Cost Crisis and Americans are beginning to feel the squeeze.
It’s not only Medicare that has affordability issues
The Kaiser Family Foundation has released some disturbing survey results on healthcare affordability issues for people under 65.
According to the survey (read survey here) one in four people under 65 either is uninsured or has difficulty with healthcare costs.
Breaking that figure down: of all survey respondents, 15.5 percent are insured but are having a struggle with affordability; 10.7 percent are uninsured.
When that total is broken down by people who are either in fair or poor health, the number increases. People who are insured by having affordability issues make up 32.9 percent. There are 13.5 percent who are uninsured. This means that nearly half of the total are healthcare insecure. It appears a healthcare medical cost crisis is imminent.
Medicare will be affected
There are two outcomes of these findings. First, with Congress already focusing on significant Medicare cost increases, the additional problems with costs for people not yet 65 will exacerbate the issue. Congress is already looking for ways to cut Medicare. These statistics will give them more fodder to chew on.
Secondly, this group of people who have problems with affordability or have no coverage at all may be forgoing treatment for health issues because they can’t afford them. This means that, when they do become eligible for Medicare, they could have more advanced healthcare conditions, requiring longer and more expensive treatment.
Whether the answer is a single-payer system or Medicare for all, the situation is bordering on critical. Congress must stop looking for areas to cut – remember the old adage “You can’t shrink your company to profitability” – and buckle down to create a program that will offer all people, under-65 and seniors, affordable healthcare. Health is the No. 1 issue on most Americans’ minds. Time to make it the No. 1 benefit, not the No. 1 problem.
