Assignment task: When People Can't Afford Health Care
Study after study has shown that millions of Americans can afford neither health care nor health insurance. Here's another one:
In a new survey of 9,200 people across 15 states by my organization, the Texas Medical Center Health Policy Institute, 49% of respondents said they must cut other expenses to pay for health care. And they aren't cutting back on frivolities like expensive electronics. Most often, they said, they had to cut back on their savings, as well as spending on food and clothing, to pay for health care.
In the American health care system, those who don't have the money to pay for health care-even people with serious illnesses or injuries-often simply get no medical care at all. Is this a fair system? Should health care be available only to those who can pay for it? Only to the well-off? Why or why not?