| Medical advances are making it possible for people | | | | coverage, are the ones who are forced to |
| to live longer and healthier lives. New diagnostic | | | | subsidize health care for everyone else. |
| techniques are catching cancer, heart disease, and | | | | An example of how devastating a delay in |
| other potentially fatal diseases earlier, sometimes | | | | diagnosis can be: A colonoscopy, recommended |
| with the result that lives are saved which would | | | | periodically for individuals over the age of forty, |
| be lost otherwise; in other instances a disease | | | | uses a thin tube with an electronic camera |
| process can be slowed and symptoms treated to | | | | assembly to explore and take photographic |
| provide a longer life, with greater quality, than | | | | images of the colon for signs of precancerous and |
| would otherwise be possible. | | | | cancerous conditions. Early detection of colon |
| That's the good news. The bad news is that at | | | | cancer makes the disease easily curable, with |
| least 40 million Americans have either limited or | | | | cure rates of up to 90 percent. However, if not |
| no access to all these advanced technologies. | | | | detected in time, the fatality rate for colon cancer |
| Forty million Americans have no health insurance | | | | is very high. A colonoscopy could catch many |
| at all, and many of these people choose to delay | | | | cases of colon cancer at a very early stage, but |
| or entirely avoid visits to doctors because of the | | | | it costs an average of $2000 - a fee that could |
| burden medical treatment [ would become on | | | | devastate the finances of many people without |
| their limited income. Some doctors actually refuse | | | | insurance. For many people, at least in the case of |
| to treat uninsured individuals. And when these | | | | colon cancer, if you have insurance you live; if |
| people do get into a doctor's office, often they're | | | | you don't, you die. |
| billed for doctor's visits and tests at many times | | | | The fact is, if you add up the money spent on |
| the rate that hospitals and clinics bill insurance | | | | Medicare and Medicaid recipients, plus all the |
| companies. One common blood test, for instance, | | | | federal, state, and local government employees, |
| is billed at the rate of $25 for insured patients; | | | | two-thirds of health care expenses are already |
| uninsured patients are billed $250. The reasoning? | | | | paid for by the government. The bitter irony is |
| According to hospital financial managers, many | | | | that much of this health care money comes from |
| people without insurance "don't bother" to pay | | | | income and Medicare taxes paid by workers in |
| their bills, so when people do pay their bills, they | | | | this country - including those with no health care |
| need to be charged more for those who don't | | | | coverage, who are being overcharged for the |
| pay at all, and to make up for insurance | | | | health care they do get, and who often have no |
| companies and Medicare and Medicaid patients | | | | access to health care at all. These individuals with |
| whose plans also pay too little. | | | | no health care coverage are paying plenty; they're |
| In other words, the most vulnerable people, the | | | | paying with their money, and they're paying with |
| ones who cannot afford health insurance | | | | their lives. |