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Yes

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Yes. Obviously. When you pay out an inordinately large chunk of your paycheck to cover your family in case of medical need and still somehow end up having to pay for most of the doctor bills any given year before the insurance kicks in, something is wrong.

Quite recently, I was living in Iowa, where it was actually easier to be on Medicaid than to pay for insurance. The program was good, they paid for most of the usual doctor visits and most of the drugs - all of them for my wife and my son, while I paid a dollar per prescription. We since moved to Missouri, where it's harder, MUCH harder for adults to meet the income guidelines for Medicaid. You pretty much have to be on the brink of homelessness. You certainly can't work full time even at minimum wage and still qualify.

So let's recap. If you work and pay for insurance through your employer, you end up getting screwed. If you work, odds are you won't qualify for Medicaid. If you don't work, you'll need Medicaid because homelessness and starvation cause all kinds of health problems.

We need healthcare for everyone. If we can go ridiculously deep in debt to fight for peace in a place where ever-increasing numbers of people think we shouldn't be, then we can go ridiculously deep in debt to fund comprehensive healthcare.

The sad part is, we don't necessarily have to go ridiculously deep in debt at all. Have you ever really looked at your bill from a hospital stay? Eight dollars for a tylenol? Fifty dollars for a doctor to glance through your charts? The costs are ridiculously inflated - especially for Medicaid patients - purely so that when the insurance companies cut down the price, they'll be left with more or less what they want.

I've heard the arguments that the hyperinflated costs of treatment are more to fund research and reward people who were willing to stick it out through years of grueling education than mere rampant capitalism. If you believe that, there's a lovely bridge in New York that I'd just love to sell you...

Learn more about this author, William Bowman.
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