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Health Insurance Isn't the Solution, It's the Problem

Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

There's a company, Affordable Medical Imaging, that charges just $275 for an MRI, the same test for which a hospital charges thousands of dollars. The difference? The medical imaging company doesn't accept health insurance. No forms, paperwork or hassles.

St. Petersburg cardiologist and author David Mokotoff, writing for WebMD.com,  uses the example to show that health insurance has brought higher and higher health-care costs, making insurance itself less and less affordable.

So the effort to cover more Americans with health insurance, he writes, may end up doing more harm than good. It makes sense to provide coverage only for the truly indigent, he writes.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.