While in many respects, health insurance is considered to be almost mandatory for everybody in today’s world, the concept of health insurance for all has not always existed, and therefore is a relatively recent concept, that did not begin to come into fruition until 1929, or thereabouts, through the inception of Blue Cross, as envisioned by Dr. Justin Ford Kimball. At that time, the concept was pretty straightforward, which was to offer to teachers access to health insurance for a small monthly fee, which thereupon effectively became the first successful health co-opt.
The genius of initial health care as done through Blue Cross, was to make it dependent, upon a fairly large group of people, such as teachers, each therefore paying a monthly fee, so that through the sheer size of those numbers, the invariable ups and downs of sickness and hospital care, was mitigated by the collective amount of money received through each of those members, healthy or not, contributing their monthly financial share. This plan, worked quite well, and was far more stable, than health insurance so provided on just an individual basis, of which, bad luck for the insurance company, in providing health insurance to someone that suffered poor health, made such insurance such as that, prone to corporate insolvency.
The advantage of health insurance for many members, benefited each side, of which, for the individual the advantage was a known monthly payment that covered their hospital stay, should such be necessary, and the treatment of their illness; whereas, for the hospital such health insurance provided a known steady stream of income and because the health insurance was subject to being periodically renewed, that premium could subsequently be adjusted upwards, if so warranted.
The impetus for that health insurance, as originally constructed, was to provide for a low cost, the security for those that fell ill, that they would not have to suffer lasting financial harm, in addition to the debilitating effect of the illness or injury that they were suffering from. In today’s world, health insurance, in many respects, is something that is often covered through employment or through school or even through individual coverage in which, somewhere along the line, what has been sorely neglected, is that such insurance besides often being complicated, confusing, filled with red tape and bureaucracy, is that it is in many a case, also quite expensive, as well as not always meeting fairly every needful contingency. That is to say, health insurance has its place, but rather than such being set always at a reasonable cost, that most families can meet, one way or another, it has, for a significant swath of Americans, become so expensive, or covers so little, that the availability of health insurance, is of no real assistance to those that are in the most vulnerable of positions.
This is why it is imperative that this government come up with some sort of viable universal health insurance plan that truly is able to address the health needs of those that have effectively been left behind to suffer the indignity of health insurance that is inadequate, of little or no use, or places too much of a financial burden upon a family that cannot afford to pay the freight for good healthcare.