Insured?

When my brother and I were growing up, we always knew whom to turn to for curing bruises, scrapes and broken bones: my mother. Because she is a doctor, Mom was more than usually capable of handling anything that might come her way. Although not everybody is closely related to a doctor, we can all look back to our childhood when mom and dad were there to take care of us.\nAs college students, that is starting to change as we begin to amass (more slowly for some than others) the responsibilities of adulthood. Among these is the responsibility to take care of our health. \nThis becomes more difficult, however, with the fragmented nature of our country's health care system.\nThis thought was brought back to my consciousness after a friend of mine became sick a few weeks ago. He had no choice but to go the hospital, where he spent several days being tested and retested with inconclusive results. At the end of all this, he was presented with a bill for several hundred dollars and nothing to show for it.\nLuckily for my friend, his bill was a mistake. Like many students, he is still covered under his parents' health insurance, and his file had merely been misprocessed.\nYet what if he hadn't been covered by his parents? Should he have to pay hospital fees that did not solve his problem just because he can't afford health insurance? And even if he had been cured, would it be fair for him to pay then? \nThese are very real concerns for people our age. I know several students who are married or otherwise emancipated from their parents. These students have already had to make choices about whether or not to purchase health care or put off medical and dental appointments. For the rest, such concerns will begin immediately after graduation, where health care becomes a major part of getting a job.\nWork-sponsored health care, incidentally, is also a timely issue, in part due to the bankruptcy of Delphi Automotive Systems -- coincidentally the place where my father works. Delphi, along with its main partner, General Motors -- are financially strained because of high health insurance benefit costs negotiated by their union employees. For a long time, these benefits were the responsibility of individual employers. Now, for a variety of factors, this system is failing, which will have repercussions for future workers, i.e. current college students.\nThere are myriad possible solutions to the problems facing our health care system, and while a 500-word column is not enough space to analyze them all, the act of discussion itself helps to bring the issue to the forefront. \nCollege students often tend to focus too much on the immediate concerns of growing up -- doing well in classes, making friends, finding a mate, holding a part-time job. These things can often be overwhelming, forcing us to lose sight of broader albeit equally serious concerns. Health care is one of them.