WHO: Millions Need Medical Bills Help

The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm on the need for medical bills help for at least 100 million people worldwide who were pushed into the economic deprivation annually because of a medical emergency or a lingering illness. This just shows that health care is not a unique problem of the United States so if you are now having a hard time coping with your medical debts, you are not the only one so there's no shame in admitting you have a problem and asking for help.

The WHO (the health agency, not the rock band) also cited the need for a universal health care especially in light of the global economic crisis, breaking down of international barriers (and thus quick spread of transnational bacteria and viruses such as the bird flu) and world populations getting older. The report suggests that a prepayment plan is the most efficient way to include more families in the health insurance coverage. That means more people may have to pay more money to cover for those who need medical bills help. If you think only socialist countries share their resources, here are just some of the areas with prepayment plans: Japan, Chile, Mexico Europe and Thailand. Throw in there third-world countries like Mexico and Rwanda.

Nowhere in the list can you find the U.S. because its problem, along with majority of the countries in the world, is 20% to 40% of spending that would have benefitted people in need of medical bills help are lost to the inefficient system because most countries still rely on direct payments and user fees.

You would think that third-world countries will be severely affected by the absence of universal health care but superpowers like the U.S. only underscored the gap between the have and the have-nots. And that makes the U.S. situation that much more alarming because it has the resources to provide universal coverage but its political will leaves much to be desired.

Meanwhile millions of families who need medical bills help are filing bankruptcies to ward off the creditors who are after their heads and pockets. This shouldn't have to happen, but it does. Unless government leaders put their acts together and finally fulfill their mandate to serve the public and not just for a few corporations.