The Nevada Sagebrush

Memo Sanchez

It doesn’t take a master’s degree in public health to recognize the grave paradox that the United States’ health care system has become.

We spend the most per capita on health care (16 percent of our gross domestic product), are one of the most technologically advanced in medicine, yet are one of the sickest developed nations in the world.

What’s worse is that 47 million of our citizens are uninsured, 10 percent of whom are college students.

That’s almost 5 million uninsured students out there. To me, this is downright deplorable and can’t be allowed.

We’re in college, and let’s face it, we do stupid things, many of which have the potential of needing a trip to the emergency room.

Hell, if you ask me, if you haven’t been uncomfortably close to a trip to your local ER at one point or another during your college years, you haven’t been living.

I remember watching a friend try mountain biking for the first time, barreling down a steep rocky single track with reckless disregard for his own safety. When a large rock appeared in the middle of the path, he froze up and slammed on his front brakes, catapulting him over the front handlebars and into the ground. Luckily, he missed the boulder and ended up only breaking his collarbone.

Our health is fleeting. At any given time it can be taken away in the form of a skiing accident, car crash or haphazard slip on the ice. If you’re unlucky enough to be one of the many college students who lack health insurance, you could be stuck with a hospital bill in the thousands, if not drastically more.

Imagine the havoc such incidents can cause on a person.

Imagine having to quit school and pick up an extra job or two to pay off your hospital bills, essentially placing your life on hold until you can crawl your way back to normalcy.

Not to mention the aftermath of your injuries, the subsequent strains on your personal relationships and the ramifications they may have on your quality of life.

Believe it or not, this happens all the time. Welcome to the reality of the uninsured.

But there is good news. The artist formally known as Prince, who just released a CD called “Lotus Flower,” is now currently known as Prince.

Oh, and President Obama is making significant strides towards health care reform, too.

The most recent proposals by the Obama administration, offering a Medicare-like insurance plan to everyone, is a reasonable way to contain costs and expand insurance coverage to the many people who don’t have it, including college students.

By competing with private insurance, this governmental intervention will put a halt to soaring insurance costs by providing an alternative and competitive price to private insurance, inadvertently lowering the costs of premiums all around.

It is by no means the cure-all for U.S. health care, but it is a step in the right direction and certainly better than watching the problem exacerbate any further.

Instead of ignoring the elephant in the room that health care has become in U.S. politics, I commend the current administration for tackling the problem head on and remaining proactive in their policy-making.

Hopefully, in a number of years, perhaps when our children go to college, far fewer students than a whopping 5 million will have to risk finding themselves out of school and out of luck.

Memo Sanchez can be reached at perspectives@nevadasagebrush.com.

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