Health Care Crisis Follow-Up
I wanted to follow-up some on my previous post about the health care crisis. I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday and it turned to this very subject. I pitched my idea of letting the market correct itself and that not everyone needs medical insurance.
She didn’t like that idea one bit. She is in her late 40’s, has a couple of part-time jobs that give her no insurance coverage and doesn’t qualify for Medicaid. Her words exactly were, “I want to live as long as I can.” To which I responded, “We all do, but at what price.”
That may seem a bit harsh, and she didn’t fully understand my point. She couldn’t believe that I thought only the rich should be able to get proper medical care. For those of you who read my previous post, I was wondering if you thought the same?
To clarify my point a bit I wanted to highlight a couple of things:
- I’m not against everyone having medical insurance, I just don’t believe it’s the governments job to provide it. If some not-for-profits want to take up the cause and people think it’s a good one, it can happen. Government plans are bound to fail.
- When I asked, “… at what cost?” I was not just implying a monetary cost. Sure, we all want to live longer, but is it worth the inconvience to you of living a healthier lifestyle in order to live longer? Or should it just be at the expense of your healthy neighbors’ tax dollar that you live longer?
Be honest, have you ever seen someone in wheel chair with an oxygen tank outside smoking? I know I have. If you’ve seen that and been furious thinking your tax dollars are paying for that medical equipment that is being wasted on someone who is still smoking, that’s what I’m talking about. If you EXPECT the government to make sure you have affordable health care and health insurance so that you don’t need to be responsible with your lifestlye, then that’s just wrong.
On the flip side, if you are willing to pay the personal price to live healthy and take care of yourself, you deserve affordable health insurance in case something major happens.
Yes, health care has a price. Too often people overlook the personal cost and look soley at their insurance. That’s one more reason why I like my high deductible plan to lower my cost. We eat well at our house and do our best to stay in reasonably healthy shape. I’m still paying 10 times more every year for medical insurance than I am using in actual medical care. Because of that, I know my money is going to help supplement others who are having large expenses. Some of them are responsible like me and are dealing with something terrible. I’m glad I can help and hope it will be there for me if I’m in that situation someday. Others are a sheer waste of money and are doing nothing to help themselves, but are paying the same as me and using my money to supplement their unhealthy lifestyle.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Interesting series of posts. I think people choosing (or being pushed into) high-deductible plans like yours would help to control costs in the system. I know I have seem various specialists and had many minor and probably unnecessary tests performed over the years with no concept of what it may cost. I pay my $10 copay and that’s it. Compare that to my car insurance with a $500 deductible and I would never allow anything to be done without multiple bids. I realize car and health are not exactly of the same importance, but the theory is the similar.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:24 am
I totally agree with your view on this. I myself have a HDHP and it works for me. I think this country has the wrong idea about healthcare. People think that the government should provide healthcare for free and then people lead unhealthy lifestyles. That’s just wrong.
When people have to pay for something themselves (like the HDHP), they may even shop around (prescriptions, doctors, hospitals), I believe it makes them smarter about it- and not go to the doctor everytime they have a sore throat. They’ll have to pay the entire doctor bill of over $50, instead of the $10 co-pay- when sometimes it’s unnecessary to see the doctor.