Thursday, July 23, 2009

Requirement to buy health insurance

Some people are screaming about this in the Obamacare. Not me. I think it makes perfect sense. Nothing else about the federal government insurance taking over the industry does. We are required by law to carry automobile insurance to protect the other driver. We are required to carry mortgage insurance to protect the bank who loaned us the mortgage. When you buy or lease a car I think the company that loans you the money will require full property coverage until its paid for. I don't know any home owners who don't have fire and theft coverage, and many renters do, but it may depend on where you live. If there were really a free market for health insurance, and you didn't want it, there could be a law that you carry something to protect the hospital and staff who might be called on to treat you during a catastrophic event or illness (because they pass that cost on to me, so if you don't carry it, you're expecting me to pay). If employers hadn't gotten into the business of health insurance after WWII to attract better workers, I think we'd all have better choices and better coverage. We had private health insurance probably 10-15 years early in our married life and careers. That chunk they take off the top of your salary could have been in your hands with you deciding if you wanted well-care, pregnancy, vision or dental, or whatever. The government could have been there for the 10% who would be too high a risk for private plans (mental illness, inherited problems, catastrophic, etc.). We are in this cost situation because of government care--there's fraud, lack of oversite, and burdensome regulations. And lawyers, of course. Don't forget the law suits.

Nor do I agree with many people my age who say it's just terrible that Obama wants to rein in the costs of Medicare. I really question that I needed to be hospitalized last summer (bill was well over $5,000, but I have no way of knowing what it really was, because by the time if filtered down to me it was something like $300 out of my pocket). I know other seniors who have experienced the same--without the insurance, would they have needed that "level" of care? Unfortunately, once you start down that road--emergency room, intensive care, intubation, surgery, dialysis, and then maybe complications from bacterial infections after surgery plus all the misery and anxiety of being hospitalized, then the follow up, yes, I'd say someone needs to really look at this. I wonder sometimes if elders are being used as guinea pigs, considering that the billions of dollars spent in those final weeks and months of life often don't extend life.

I tried to look up the percentage of income that goes to health care, but unfortunately that figure depends on the political views of the writer. I saw everything from 5.7% to 15%. And if they say it costs more than housing, they aren't factoring in all the costs of housing, and they are adding in the employer's contribution for health care. Apples. Oranges. But it is a lot and it's going up fast. And it will be more if the government does it, with worse care. Folks. We know that from experience. Medicare is out of control BECAUSE it is a government program. Why would it be different if you had it too?

4 comments:

Hokule'a Kealoha said...

I dont have a problem with manditory health insurance. How ever what will we do with those that dont buy or who are like me one of the 47 million that dont have health insurance have pre existing and my COBRA was 500.00 a month rediculous...
Lets get a system set up that makes more sense. I dont think that this the right plan, but a plan needs to happen. The system isnt working for the poor and unemployed

Mortart said...

Norma, two previous messages to you have bounced back using 2 different e-mail addresses. I hope this one gets through to you.

My wife Sybil would be honored if you posted her poem on your alumni reunion blog. She is highly complimented.

Anonymous said...

The fact that gets muddied up in this issue is that buying fire or car insurance is completely different from what is today being called "health insurance." If we could purchase true insurance to financially protect me from catastrophic incidences (like fire, auto accident, etc) many more people would be for it. BUT HEALTH INSURANCE IS NOT INSURANCE ANYMORE. It is managed care [see how insurance companies have even been redefined as healthcare management companies], where the government or a third party controls everything about you even when you are not sick and then controls what care you can receive and, worse, what you must comply with in order to get care at all, and what your doctor must do to be paid even he/she does not think it is not best for you. This is unethical, especially when the vast majority of what the government and third-parties are dictating have no good scientific support but are designed to make THEM money, such as through drugs. But we don't even have a choice to buy actual major medical-type plans anymore.

Norma said...

Anon 7:29: Thanks for this very solid piece of information. I know privately purchased insurance isn't like what we bought in the 1960s and 1970s, but I'm not informed enough to grasp all the details. I appreciate it.

Mort: Thanks. The e-mail post here should work bruce dot 6, but I appreciate the message--when I get it posted Sybil can take a look. It's a wonderful poem.

Hoku: there should have been an easier way to cover people like you, temporarily fallen on hard times, without all this take over of a private industry. He's using your case to take over.