Those who lack health insurance deserve better

By TOMMY MOORE

Guest columnist

Twenty percent of our fellow South Carolinians don’t have health insurance. It’s unacceptable to me that people who work for small businesses or who are self-employed can’t afford health insurance. The tragic fact that so many of our neighbors and friends don’t have such insurance has serious consequences for all of us.

Thirty percent of our children lack health insurance. That is more than 300,000 children — our future. We should be ashamed that we have tolerated this.

Two-thirds of the uninsured in South Carolina work, mostly for small businesses. These small employers want to provide health insurance but can’t afford to. I know this because I hear from them, and because I have owned and operated my own small business for 28 years.

This week (May 1-7) is “Cover the Uninsured Week,” sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and created to remind us just how serious a problem this is for 46 million Americans and an estimated 850,000 South Carolinians. People without health insurance don’t see doctors soon enough or frequently enough. When they do get sick, they wait until they get very sick; then they often turn to the crowded emergency rooms of our local hospitals.

The uninsured use the emergency room more frequently for basic care than do the insured. When patients use the ER inappropriately for noncritical care, the precious resources of physicians and nurses are diverted from true emergency patients needing life-saving care. We all could be at risk of not receiving care when we need it the most because of this condition. It’s also the most expensive method of health care delivery there is — and we’re all paying for it.

This tragedy must end. Early intervention by a physician is critical to efficient disease management. Lack of insurance prevents South Carolinians from getting the preventive care they need. Uninsured women don’t get mammograms at the same rate as insured women do. Uninsured adults between ages 50 and 64 don’t get colonoscopies at the same rate as the insured do. When the uninsured are diagnosed, their treatment options are often limited. They often lack access to specialists on a timely basis, or they can’t afford prescription medications.

Not all South Carolinians without health insurance are poor. More than 20 percent have incomes above $50,000. But the average cost for family health coverage in South Carolina is more than $10,000 a year. If employed, the employee will pay about $3,000, and the employer will pay the balance. Families with private health insurance have to pay the full $10,000 on top of meeting sizable deductibles and co-payments. For a middle-class family, health insurance is often more per month than the mortgage or rent.

All South Carolinians carry the burden of the uncompensated care provided to our uninsured citizens. South Carolina hospitals spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year caring for uninsured patients who can’t pay their bills. These higher costs are passed on to employers and employees through higher premiums.

Taxpayers pay for such government programs as Medicare, Medicaid and the South Carolina Children’s Health Insurance Program. Local taxpayers help pay for public hospitals. I have sponsored and supported legislation to increase revenue from cigarette sales and create the resources to invest in programs to help discourage South Carolinians from smoking and to help us expand the state’s Medicaid program to cover more than 100,000 of our uninsured children. This investment would improve declining health in our rural families, provide critically needed dental care and be used to help small businesses afford healthcare coverage for their workers.

We’ve had plenty of excuses for inaction. As governor, I will challenge and work with our leaders in the Legislature and in state agencies to seek solutions to the rising costs of health insurance and the challenge of maintaining a safety net for our most vulnerable citizens.

Many of us believe that addressing health insurance is a moral imperative. No family should have to choose between seeing a doctor or paying the electric bill or putting gas in the car. If we are serious about moving this state forward, it’s at least as critical an economic imperative. South Carolina economic development efforts simply will not be successful until we find a way for our small businesses to afford health insurance for their employees.

No matter how you look at it, taking decisive action to solve South Carolina’s heath care coverage deficiencies is simply the right thing to do. As governor, I will get it done.

Sen. Moore, of Clearwater, is a Democratic candidate for governor.