Health Care for the Poor and Uninsured

As I have been working on my junior theme, “Why doesn’t the United States have a universal health care plan that provides affordable access to all its citizens?,” I came across an interesting article in the Chicago Tribune called “Are hospitals passing off their low-profit patients?” The authors report that patients are not getting fully treated at nonprofit hospitals and are sending them on to Cook County’s Stroger Hospital. Despite nonprofit hospitals receiving millions of dollars in tax breaks and benefits for helping the uninsured, these hospitals are sending the patients to the already over-crowded Stroger Hospital. Unlike a private hospital, Stroger Hospital acts like a “safety net for the poor and uninsured,” but the hospital is struggling financially.

How do we solve the health care crisis? Wouldn’t a universal health care system help pave the way?