Dysfunctional Medical Insurance Essay -- Argumentative

Dysfunctional Medical Insurance A mom is waiting frantically in the local emergency room while her little girl continues to cry with pain. An hour goes by without any news as to when she will finally be treated. At last, their number gets called and they go over to the registration desk. The lady behind the desk opens their file and shakes her head in disbelief as she turns to look at yet another mother with remorse. She continues to tell the mother that the hospital has refused to provide medical attention to her little girl due to insurance problems. This scenario is sadly very common in the lower class families with little or no insurance coverage, in fact â€Å"20% of the U.S. population lacks medical coverage† (Richman). While the initial idea of medical insurance seems more beneficial than not, the current health insurance situation has caused many negative repercussions for both the patients and the physicians. Some of these disadvantages include: denial of health care, compromised medical att ention, astronomical billings, privacy issues, discriminatory plans, and even possible risks of fraud. The original idea of medical insurance should have been a noble way to help Americans afford medical bills in a case of an emergency or just routine physicals and check-ups. A lot of Americans coming from different financial situations could not afford the emergency or even the customary treatments and would therefore go without medical attention. This obviously had dire consequences on the patients’ health, thus forcing the need of an alternative option. â€Å"Fortunately, a handful of physicians associated with Sacramento's Sutter General Hospital saw beyond the despair. Seeing a need for an alternative health care financing vehicle in the early 1930s, the doctors created the first open enrollment hospital insurance plan in the United States† (Sutter Health). As originally planned, this new medical insurance proposed benefits to both the doctors and the patients; patients could afford to be treated, while doctors could see more patients-even of the lower income clas s. Somehow—between then and now, the plan has been twisted and turned around so much that it has lost some of its greatest benefits and reputation. Because of the numerous loop holes in the current insurance plan, I believe that right now the drawbacks and disadvantages are overshadowin... ...been hit with a half of billion dollars in claims. As the extensity of this crime allows, there are many other issues to be dealt with besides just the insurance aspect. However, if insurance wasn’t implemented into our society or even if loop holes didn’t exist in this case, then this crime could not have been possible. Since insurance was introduced to our society, there have been many problems. Much like the little girl who was denied medical attention, many people suffer from these disadvantages of medical insurance. I believe that the medical insurance idea is argumentative, because there are a lot of repercussions that people may or may not have thought about. Besides the recent crimes being committed against them, the insurance companies are benefiting immensely, but are we? The prices of medical treatments are rising, the doctor’s attention to actual patients as opposed to who has insurance is diminishing, and less people are benefiting from health insurance. I do not think that medical insurance should have been proposed in the first place. I do admit that it should have been a benefit to Americans, but I have yet to see everyone benefit as initially planned.