California Offers New Ways to Insure the Uninsured

In today's society, the ultimate goal for the healthcare system of the United States is universal health coverage for all residents. Most other developed countries possess universal healthcare systems that are run by their respective governments (Grosse 4). History has shown us that the United States is making slow and steady attempts to cover all of its citizens, with each try resulting in a program or policy that insures a group of people. For instance, in 1965, Medicare was created to insure those over 65 years of age, among other groups; in that same instance, Medicaid was created to cover the poor below the federal poverty level. Since its inception in 1997, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has been covering previously uninsured children. Despite our efforts to decrease the amount of uninsured, as of 2002, there were 43.6 million uninsured in the United States (Bodenheimer 15). Insuring group by group is not effective enough; we must find a way to insure larger groups and create coverage programs with less qualification constraints.