Age Discrimination in Health Care

One area of health care reform that I've yet to see anyone address is the huge discrepency between the premiums charged to Americans under the age of 50, and those paid by Americans between 50 and 64. .

The average annual medical expenses for people 18 to 44, according to federal research data, was $2,079. For those between 45 to 64 it increases to $4866, about 2.3 times higher. While it would seem to make sense that, based on these figures, premiums would be a bit higher for older Americans, the sad truth is that premiums paid by the group between 45 and 64 are up to as five times as much! This, I 'm sure, goes hand hand with the fact that that same age group is also the most rapidly growing group of uninsured Americans. This clearly seems to be an area where premiums could be adjusted down to a reasonable level, making private insurance more financially attainable for older citizens.

These are the kinds of things which need to be addressed before any wholesale changes are made to the health care system. What needs to be addressed are the things which are not working. Along with tort reform to put a ceiling on medical malpractice claims, as well as hard limits on malpractice insurance premiums, and a reworking of the pharmaceutical industry(see my article "A Single Payer System That Might Work For US Healthcare"), I sincerely believe it's not unrealistic that a solution can be reached which will allow the government to focus specifically on the uninsured, and leave those who are happy with their health care alone, while instituting changes which will not only bring down the costs of health care for all Americans, but leave private enterprise in tact as well.