Help, I Can’t Afford Healthcare!

Nurse checking vitals signs
Nurse measuring patient blood pressure

The statistic that 1 in 5 Americans can’t afford healthcare was being reported on my morning news today. The fact that twenty percent of our population can’t afford healthcare is alarming to say the least, so what can we do about it?

As it is for business owners, there is sometimes only a few things they can do in order to control their cost of doing business. They have little control of their cost of goods from other vendors, we have little control over the cost of our healthcare. Our local businesses have no control over the cost of their utilities and often no control over a majority of their expenses going to necessary outside sources. They are at the mercy of others not to raise their cost of doing business. We are in a similar predicament as we have no control over the rising cost of healthcare each year.

From US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health

In an era of rising health care costs and budget constraints, an increasing number of Americans have difficulty paying for needed health care services. Among the uninsured, finding a provider who offers affordable services is challenging at best, and the wait for an appointment with a provider offering free or reduced-price services can be considerable. For those with Medicaid coverage, state budget constraints may affect their eligibility for coverage, the services offered, or their ability to find a provider willing to accept the Medicaid fee schedule. Those with Medicare face copayments and bear the rising costs of prescription medications. Even the privately insured may face difficulties paying for care with rising premiums, deductibles, and copayments, and private plans that may not cover an adequate amount of their costs to ensure access to quality health care.

Recently, there have been renewed calls for universal health insurance coverage in the United States. While such coverage would help those who are currently uninsured, the extent to which they might continue to have problems paying for care under private or public insurance is unknown. Data from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that 6.8% of adults reported problems paying for care despite having private or public health care coverage.

What can we do when our insurance costs rise?

Can we control the cost of our medicines?

Are we able to do anything about our unaffordable healthcare cost?

There may not be anything we can do about the cost of our health insurance, but we can control the cost of our medicines and healthcare. You have more control than you probably know, but are you willing to do anything about it?

Do you feel helpless when you can’t afford healthcare?

Having a spouse with breast cancer and a couple of other health issues, I know first hand about the cost of health care. If you have never had a major illness in your home, you can’t imagine the costs associated with cancer. We have sky high medical costs on top of superhigh cost of medical insurance to add insult to injury. The charges to my insurance provider over the last year and a half are just about a million dollars now, and still rising. So yes, I am writing from knowledge and experience.

No Hill For a Climber, How Much Does Breast Cancer Cost?

What you can do when you can’t afford healthcare.

You can begin to control your healthcare cost by controlling the way you live your life. You can choose to eat healthy foods in moderation, or not. We can make choices to be more active or we can choose to be sedentary. The way we live our lives is a matter of choices we have made in the past, present, and future. Unless you are debilitated already, you do have control over your life. Our limitations usually come from within rather from outside of us. Choose to live as healthy as you possibly can if you can’t afford healthcare cost.

As reported by the Center for Disease Control, there are four main risk factors for preventable chronic diseases:

tobacco use

poor nutrition

lack of physical activity

and excessive alcohol use.

You have control over these life factors!

Overweight and Obesity

Eating a healthy diet, along with getting enough physical activity and sleep, can help children grow up healthy and prevent overweight and obesity. In the United States, 19% of young people aged 2 to 19 years and 40% of adults have obesity, which can put them at risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers. In addition, obesity costs the US health care system $147 billion a year. (1)

Heart Disease and Stroke

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Comment Add yours

Comments and questions are most welcome!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: