Letter to the Editor
Los Angeles Times
202 West 1st Street
Los Angeles, California, 90012
October 3, 2011
Dear Editor,
On October 3rd, in “Rx for the GOP: You should own universal healthcare” the issue of medical insurance and employment status was addressed. As an advocate of universal health care I agree that the GOP should embrace the idea more readily, not only to gain votes, but, more rationally, to increase overall health in the US. As mentioned, many people, 2/3 of the US population under 65 years of age, are insured through employer based insurance. However, it is important to recognize that although two-thirds of the population is insured through an employer-based insurance, 71% of the uninsured population lives in a household with at least one full-time worker. The statistics that many people opt into insurance through their job fails to assert that the majority of the uninsured have jobs (or are dependents of someone who works), meaning that employer-based insurance should be expanded and be made more accessible.
Because it is true that many Americans receive health care through their job, we should be able to build on this idea to create a solution to our broken health care system. Not all employers are required to offer insurance to their employees; however, I believe that mandating all employers to do so will slowly decrease the percentage of Americans who are uninsured, and thus increase overall health in the US, and eventually decreasing health care expenditures.
Sincerely,
Iliana Ponce
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe article suggests that the GOP needs to approve of the healthcare reform because it will benefit not the economy and the overall population. The article anchors its argument on the connection between healthcare and jobs, arguing how approving of healthcare reform would also be an end the feud between the GOP and Unions.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, I agree, a decision needs to be made over healthcare. Even though GOP may not agree with Obama’s healthcare reform, it is a step forward in preventing people going bankrupt as a result of medical bills, ensuring people getting the preventative care they need, and people not having to stay in jobs they hate in order to keep their health insurance.
In regards to your comments to the editor, although I am completely for the idea that businesses should provide health insurance options, it is important to keep in mind that providing health insurance is an expense that most small businesses are not willing to take on. In the unstable economy we currently live in, although it is easy to enforce that all employers provide insurance options to their employees, there are still barriers that need to be overcome such as: new employees are not always readily offered insurance, many companies only enroll people into policies once a year, and employees must work a minimum hour requirement to be eligible (and a lot of jobs have cut hours).
Although, mandating employers to provide health insurance is an important step, we must also consider the barriers that still exist within this avenue, especially considering the job market of today which consists of the growth of small businesses, self-employment, and the rise of start-up companies.