Can Universal Health Care Change the Face of Personal Injury Litigation?
Understand Your Injuries, Understand Your Legal Rights

July 19, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Can Universal Health Care Change the Face of Personal Injury Litigation?

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Understand Your Injuries, Understand Your Legal Rights

Over the course of the last 17 years, I have heard accident injury victims utter this statement hundreds of times: "I didn't get any medical care to treat my injuries because I didn't have insurance."

Contrary to popular belief, personal injury claims are not really about money: they are about protecting your health, protecting your rights, ensuring that your expenses are covered and making provisions for whatever present or future medical treatment you may need. You deserve to have access to the medical care you need, regardless of cost. A personal injury lawsuit will help you exercise that right. Your first step following any injury caused by the negligence of another (including those resulting from motor vehicle accidents, workplace or job site accidents, slips and falls, medical malpractice, premises liability or defective products), of course, should be to seek immediate medical attention.

Unfortunately, if you are one of the millions of Americans who either lack health insurance or have only the most basic coverage (commonly referred to as being "underinsured"), you may be hesitant to get treatment for your injuries, fearing you will be buried under a mountain of medical bills. In fact, a serious illness or injury results in nearly $27,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, on average, for an uninsured person. With adequate insurance that amount is much less, approximately $18,000, but still an enormous financial burden.

Even if you "bite the bullet" and pursue treatment at your own expense, your inherent concerns about how to pay the bills could still be paralyzing. Your injury may be complicated enough to require the expertise of a specialist, but fear of skyrocketing costs may prevent you from looking further than the nearest general practitioner. This is just not fair the negligence of another party should not stop you from making a full recovery and resuming your life simply because you cannot afford the best treatment available.

What Will It Cost You to Not Get Treatment?

Without proper care, your current injuries (even those that initially seemed relatively minor) could linger for years, possibly compromising your health for the rest of your life. Not seeking appropriate and necessary medical treatment obviously undermines your health, but it could also prevent you from exercising your legal right to hold the negligent party responsible by filing a personal injury lawsuit.

Personal injury lawsuits are only successful when underlying injuries can be properly documented. You must be able to demonstrate the full extent of your injuries, determine the long-term consequences of them and prove that your injuries were the result of another's negligence. If you don't, for whatever reason, seek timely and thorough medical treatment, you simply will not be able to provide this crucial evidence. Even the most skilled personal injury attorney cannot make persuasive legal arguments without evidence that the underlying negligence caused the injuries.

Standardized Health Coverage Could Be An Answer

The protection of your rights to seek the medical attention you need and ultimately recover damages from the person or entity whose negligence caused your injuries, regardless of your current financial state, could be assisted by the implementation of a universal health care system if done properly. Universal health care, standard in nearly every civilized country in the world, provides medical, dental and mental health coverage for eligible residents. If implemented properly, Universal coverage programs, commonly referred to as "single-payer health care" systems or "national health insurance," will allow every person access to medical treatment when it is needed.

Once you are no longer consumed with the worries associated with private care insurance (i.e. ridiculously high premiums, outrageous deductibles, co-pays for every doctor or clinic visit, lack of prescription or dental coverage preventing you from getting vital care), you are obviously free to obtain the medical assistance you need following an injury. Furthermore, universal health care may alleviate the micromanagement of medical care by insurance companies who are primarily interested in protecting their bottom line. Your physician's suggested course of action for your treatment would no longer hinge on the frame of a bureaucratically weighted system thus allowing for prompt payment for necessary diagnostic tests or procedures, instead of offering coverage for only the least-expensive and least-effective options. Your best interests and your health would be at the forefront of any treatment decisions, not your worries about how to cover the resulting expenses.

Although universal health care has been lauded by physicians, politicians and patient advocates as a solution to our nation's current health care nightmare, the government there is great debate as to how best implement this system. Until such a time as standardized coverage becomes the norm, you will be forced to make difficult decisions about your medical care in the event of an injury. In the meantime, though, if you have been injured due to another's negligence, speak with an attorney to discuss potential legal remedies. An experienced and knowledgeable lawyer can give invaluable advice about potential options and the most effective course of action to pursue.

If universal health care is properly implemented maybe I will never have to again hear the refrain: "I did not get medical care to treat my injuries because I did not have insurance."

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