Beyond politics - The need for truly affordable healthcare is real:
Bottom Line: Too often people stop at the political conversation that's ensnared the healthcare industry since the advent of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. The problem is that unlike some political battles, the implications of this battle impact every American and for millions it's critical to their overall health and well-being. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation demonstrated that 42 million Americans who had health insurance, at an average cost of $6,500 per person, couldn't afford to obtain any healthcare. That's a fact I've cited with regularity over the past year with reason. It's incredibility unfortunate that you'd pay out $6,500 for health insurance but not have any healthcare to show for it and a law that mandates that you do it! Without a doubt those people would be better off with $6,500 worth of healthcare & no insurance!
As a reminder the single biggest failure of the ACA was that it took the single biggest obstacle to more affordable healthcare, the lack of transparency due to the insurance first model, and mandated it. We don't have an access crisis with healthcare. We don't have a lack of insurance coverage issue with healthcare (quite the opposite). We have a cost of healthcare crisis and a desperate need to have consumer-price-service transparency. Why bring all of this up again? Consider the latest research on the human toll of those who can't afford healthcare.
According to Gallup's latest well-being study:
22% of men & 37% of women have put off needed healthcare this year due to cost
63% of medical services put off due to cost are "serious" healthcare needs
It's important to note that only 8.6% of Americans don't have health insurance in this ACA era of mandated insurance. That means that more that 20% of Americans who do pay for health insurance still can't afford healthcare including, most commonly, serious medical treatment and services.