The Shorthorn - Health care can't be put on the back burner

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Health care can't be put on the back burner

Written by Brooke Cureton, The Shorthorn columnist

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 08:19 PM

One thousand and eighteen pages that the vast majority of Americans will never lay eyes on, titled “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,” has been a topic of extreme controversy.

The nation is divided, perhaps worse than during the Civil War and somehow we need to make sense of it. College students fall in a gap when it comes to health insurance.

Some are covered by parents’ insurance plans, others opt to take out student health insurance, but there is a large number of students without it. The university offers a health center where students are able to meet with a doctor for free, which is a great resource, but what happens when college ends?

What if you need more immediate care?

We can’t live with the notion that accidents don’t occur. If the health care bill passed, and health care becomes affordable to all citizens, it would no longer be a worry for college students. Upon graduation or certain birthdays, many parental insurance plans drop children.

You graduate from college, perhaps not yet employed, and have no insurance when you get sick. Medical bills can be outrageous. That’s an awful position to be in when job searching or paying school loans.

The health care bill is meant to lower insurance premiums and increase health care options.

It’s obvious the bill would not make for a perfect health care system, and its passage would result in a great deal of government involvement. The bill outlines that the government would work with doctors to establish standards for testing and hospital admittance. Some call it the “death panel,” others say it would save considerable funds currently wasted on unnecessary testing.

Now, before you freak out about government involvement, we need to remember the kinds of issues that currently exist with health care and health facilities. The reforms seem ridiculous and government looks pretty big at first glance, but what about the abuse of our current health system?

Drug addicts off the street show up in emergency rooms saying they need an IV. They tell the doctor that the veins in their arms are no good and need a “PICC line,” an IV that goes straight to the heart.

They get one and disappear. They are back to the streets with a new way to get drugs in their bodies because they abused a health care system that is meant to save people, not drug them.

Health care reform is going to be expensive. It will always be a mess of opinions, but we can’t ignore or forget it. Politicians, doctors and citizens all over the nation are talking, well mostly yelling, but no one is really listening.

We have got to start listening to all sides, especially those whose voice is small. We also have to realize as students that our generation will feel the greatest effect. We will be paying for a lot of this, not a small burden.

Politicians will never fully agree on what needs to be done but a compromise is vital to the lives and well-being of millions.