>>3131102(continuing)
So, Americans without health insurance and Americans with health insurance but who don't want to spend money if there's a chance that the problem will just go away on its own use the Emergency Room a lot.
For those with insurance: The hospital charges your insurance way more. The insurance company deals with this by increasing premiums for everyone.
For those without insurance: The hospital sends you a bill. If you can't pay the bill, the hospital eats the cost. When the hospital is forced to eat a lot of costs, they raise the rates they charge everyone else (i.e., insurance companies). When the rates at the hospitals go up, your insurance premiums go up.
And, of course, when hospital costs go up, more people hold off on going to the hospital. And when insurance costs go up, fewer people get insurance, which forces the insurance companies to raise rates even HIGHER to compensate.
It's a vicious cycle. Healthcare costs and premiums have been skyrocketing basically forever. Of course, over the last six or seven years, the rate at which premiums have been going up has lessened. CAN YOU GUESS WHY?
The costs would get even lower if people weren't so incentivised to play the "Is this a real problem that I should see a doctor about, or should I want until it's an emergency?" game. E.g., if there were just universal healthcare and people could just go to the fucking doctor when they get sick and when the problem is small and easy to fix. This is why in EVERY. SINGLE. COUNTRY with universal healthcare, citizens are healthier and end up paying VASTLY less--even when you take higher taxes into account--for healthcare.
