Healthcare: You Get What You Pay For

by Sir Earl McClora
excerpted from The American Chronicle
March 22, 2008

Pricing is everything when it pertains to the validity of a product. The difference in pricing between a KIA and a Bentley Coupe is about $140,000. Yet the price is based on the qualities of each product. The Bentley engine probably cost as much as the entire car made by KIA. These vehicles will both get you to your destination. They both have all the standard components that are essential for transportation purposes. Both vehicles have wheels, engine, doors, mirrors, seats, and so on. However a person that has driven both cars will fully understand the distinct difference between the two.

Consumers will get what they pay for. Attempting to save money in an area of your life will, at times, cause you to buy a product that is of a lower grade or isn´t made with the best quality and craftsmanship. A product of better quality and craftsmanship will cost you more money but will save you in the long run.

The greatest issue that Americans face today next to a declining economy and the war in Iraq, is higher healthcare cost. Presidential candidates are running their campaigns based off of a dream that everyone in America will one day have health insurance. All of the candidates are looking at the data received by demographics determined by the population of each state versus the number of hospital visits, illnesses, and the number of people that have healthcare now. Each of these facts given by the compiled data received in each state is a good assessment of the issue confirming that we, as a country, need more avenues allowing every person to have healthcare.

Yet, healthcare is not the problem. It is just used to mask the real problem at hand. The real problem hiding under the healthcare crisis is actually a "health care" issue and not a healthcare issue. If we take better care of our own health on a daily basis we would reduce the number of hospital visits as well as insurance claims and subsequently lower the cost of healthcare. But, people would seem to rather pay high premiums for health insurance and then buy cheaper foods with little or no exercise being placed in their daily regiment.

Yet the average citizen of this great country couldn´t afford to get sick for more than one week. A person in a middle class bracket would trickle down to the poor class and poor class would get even poorer if they were both out of work for a month or more. No one wants to take ownership for the reason why they get sick and have to use healthcare in the first place. Instead they put their trust in a failing healthcare package hoping that hospitals will solve the problems they have ultimately made for themselves.