The federal government should help the individuals pay for the rising costs of today's medical care by creating a program that would be combined with private insurance. This program should not be a socialized medicine program like those of other industrialized nations. The government does already have a few programs but only for special interest groups. We need a plan to help the consumer combat rising medical costs.

Medical costs have risen sharply in the United States since the early 1960s. As the economy slows and the federal deficit rises, Congress will again try to curb Medicare spending, which last year soared 12 percent, to $108 billion. Health care providers, who are bracing for smaller fee increases from Washington, will try to shift costs to private payers. There are three main methods of financing medical care in the United States. They are: (1) private insurance; (2) government insurance and other government aid; and (3) direct personal payments.

The federal, state, and local governments pay about 43 percent of all health care costs in the U.S. The federal government pays the largest part. Federal funds help pay for hospital construction and help support medical schools. The federal Medicare program is the largest public health care program in the United States. Medicare aids elderly people in paying for extended hospital and nursing home care. Social Security supports the program with contributions. The federal government cooperates with state governments to finance Medicaid, a health care plan for people of any age who cannot afford private health insurance.

Society Security is a government program that helps workers and retired workers and their families achieve a degree of economic security.It provides cash benefits to replace lost income. The program also helps pay the cost of medical care for people 65 or older and for some disabled workers. People become eligible to receive benefits by working a certain period in a job covered by Social Security. Employers and workers finance the program through payroll taxes. All industrialized countries and many developing nations have a social security system.

Though the United States has Society Security, it is the only industrialized nation that does not have a National Health Insurance program, often known as "socialized medicine," where the government finances major health services for the majority of the people in a country. National Health Insurance (NHI) programs can be divided into three groups. Public-private plans provide public assistance to the aged, poor, and unemployed. Others must rely on benefits paid by private insurance companies. Wholly public plans are financed by tax revenues and provide health care for the entire population. Catastrophic plans cover only unusually high medical expenses.

The main opponent of NHI is the American Medical Association. They argue that NHI would reduce the quality of health care, but they do agree that the U.S. should have some form of national health care. They cannot decide on the nature of the program or how to administer it.

The Canadians have their own system. Each Canadian province has its own program of public health insurance. Almost all Canadians are covered under the pro programs. These programs pay all major health care expenses. The Canadian government shares the cost of public health insurance with the provinces. It pays about half the costs, using general tax funds.

In some countries, including China and the Soviet Union, medicine is completely socialized. Each citizen receives medical care free or at very low cost. In other countries, such as Great Britain, medicine is largely socialized. And in most Western European countries, medicine is partly socialized. The central government does not own mos medical facilities, nor does it pay most doctors, but these countries have an NHI program that provide free medical care or refunds almost all the money a patient spends for medical care. It is mostly financed by Social Security.

Government should have a program that is combined with private insurers. It has four basic parts: The first part calls for the government to cover basic medical costs after a minimum deductible has been satisfied for each event. The deductible is necessary to prevent overuse. The second part comes after the basic services have been satisfied. The major medical and co-insurance could be funded by the individual or his company's major medical insurance plan. In the event that the individual has no coverage at all, the government could provide the major medical coverage insurance at a nominal cost. The cost could be determined by a certain percent of the individual's financial status. And the fourth step deals with dread diseases and terminal illnesses, such as heart transplants, cancer, HIV, and the like. The government coverage would take over after the private insurance major medical coverages have been exhausted.

A program such as this would provide insurance coverage for virtually every individual. It would provide basic coverage for individuals at the lower end of the economic scale who cannot afford insurance. At the same time there would be a sharing of the costs of medical care between business, industry and individuals in the middle and upper income levels. Catastrophic coverage provided by the government would prevent families from having to liquidate their estates in order to cover the medical costs.

Because of technological advances in the many fields of medicine, health care costs have risen. To meet expenses, hospitals have raised their service charges by more than 150 percent between 1960 and 1990. Our country should devise a combination program with private insurers to help fight these rising costs. Our country is great, but it can only stay that way if we have healthy people here to run it.

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