There need to be laws. I don't have health insurance either, because I was paying a fortune for it, and it didn't cover any of my actual needs. I was giving up my ability to see a chiropractor, buy groceries, etc., so that I could give money to a health insurance company, who then made me go see a doctor who demanded a two thousand dollar test, told me I had a problem I already knew I had, and then did absolutely nothing to treat it. In the meantime, the health insurance company refused to pay for the test. So trust me, I know the problems with the system as it stands.
The very notion of health insurance is absurd, actually. For any insurance system to work, the incoming premiums must outweigh the outgoing claims. That works with car insurance. It doesn't with health insurance, because almost everyone who has it is going to use it, pretty much regularly. Which means it's not really "insurance" at all, is it?
Insurance should be there for the big stuff -- the really big expensive stuff that nobody who works for a living could afford -- and we should pay out of pocket for the rest. It would actually be cheaper. (Think about what "insurance" costs per month, and then imagine having 75% of that money to spend on doctors yourself, while paying a much smaller premium for catastrophic insurance.) Then the portion of the population that needs additional help could be eligible for a government program that works like food stamps. That's the type of plan I would view positively, but the last I looked at Hillary's plan, it was nothing like that.
Granted, I haven't paid attention lately, as primaries are over where I am, and I avoid unnecessary stress, usually.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-15 11:26 pm (UTC)The very notion of health insurance is absurd, actually. For any insurance system to work, the incoming premiums must outweigh the outgoing claims. That works with car insurance. It doesn't with health insurance, because almost everyone who has it is going to use it, pretty much regularly. Which means it's not really "insurance" at all, is it?
Insurance should be there for the big stuff -- the really big expensive stuff that nobody who works for a living could afford -- and we should pay out of pocket for the rest. It would actually be cheaper. (Think about what "insurance" costs per month, and then imagine having 75% of that money to spend on doctors yourself, while paying a much smaller premium for catastrophic insurance.) Then the portion of the population that needs additional help could be eligible for a government program that works like food stamps. That's the type of plan I would view positively, but the last I looked at Hillary's plan, it was nothing like that.
Granted, I haven't paid attention lately, as primaries are over where I am, and I avoid unnecessary stress, usually.