Finally, affordable health care insurance to be a reality in

Finally, affordable health care insurance to be a reality in the United States!

Affordable health care insurance is intricately tied to the current crisis of exploding health care costs in the United States. If people can't afford to purchase health care insurance, they have no choice but to tolerate any disease they might contract until it becomes an emergency. When it does become an emergency, they head for the emergency ward where treatment costs range in the thousands of dollars. A large part of the soaring health care cost is precisely due to this practice. It is a dual tragedy: the patient is already advanced in the illness by the time they get to emergency, and the cost for treatment is far greater than preventive treatment. The problem is further compounded by the fact that most patients using this (their only alternative) are poor and unable to pay for the emergency room expense. Collections can't 'squeeze blood from a turnip', and the rest of us have to bear the burden, through higher health care costs and higher insurance premiums. This sorry picture is about to change.

So significant is this problem of skyrocketing health care costs in the U.S., the recent Health Reform Law specifically addresses affordable health care, not only for the unemployed poor, but also for the poor employed, the self-employed individual, and small businesses. Health care insurance has been out of the reach of these people for most of the history of the health care system in the United States. Unless these people are able to get affordable health care insurance, the cost of health care in the United States will only continue to grow by leaps and bounds.

For most of the poor, health care insurance is out of their reach simply because they don't make enough money to pay for even the most basic health care package. Some 25 million Americans are in this predicament. The Health Reform law aims to correct this by making health care insurance available to anyone through government subsidies. If your family cannot afford insurance, the government will pay for it on your behalf, requiring only modest contributions on your part. You'll also be able to obtain insurance from the proposed exchanges of medical insurance, to be built throughout the country. Your family will be able to join with others at the exchange to form a group that, because it is a group, enjoys group discount prices. The government has allocated $350 billion in subsidies for these 25 million, individuals and families. With the government pitching in and the advent of exchanges, affordable health care is now a possibility for all poor Americans, employed or unemployed, well or sick.

The exchange described above will be the principal way by which self-employed individuals and small businesses will be able to obtain affordable health care insurance. Through these exchanges, individuals and small businesses will be grouped together as a pool. Here's how it works: the exchange will offer insurance plans from many different vendors. When you sign up, you'll be given a rate that takes into account the number of other people who are getting the same policy plan via the exchange. Your premiums will be at a group rate. Group rates are the way large corporations manage to get cheaper premiums for their employees. Through exchanges, you'll realize the same savings.

Until the exchanges are in place, small businesses of 25 or fewer employees will receive tax credits for enrolling their employees in any health care plan. The plans you get may not be affordable by itself, but once the tax credits take effect, the savings will balance out the expense. By 2019, all of the exchanges should be operational and you'll be able to get affordable health care insurance at rates you or your small business can readily afford.

By making affordable heath care insurance available to everyone, the country will not only have healthier citizens receiving preventative care, but the high cost of health care will finally stabilize. In 2014, all Americans will be required to have medical health care insurance. Start comparing now and learn where the exchanges will be in your region. These exchanges are our best hope for affordable health care for all!