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Because car insurance and health insurance are completely different. For one, the states highly regulate auto insurance and anyone must have it to own a car.
Health insurance companies are regulated at the state level too, by the same office- insurance commissioner.
Good point! What we call health insurance is not really insurance at all. It is a prepaid medical expense program. You take out an insurance policy to insure against unexpected risks. Going to the doctor is not an unexpected risk. Getting a prescription is not an unexpected expense. We won't have any type of competition in healthcare until health insurance premiums and what the insurance covers is reduced. People need to become conscious of the expenses they are incurring.
The next step is to get rid of the confusing system of hospital and physician charges. There is no connection between what a provider charges and what they get paid. Patients need to understand the true cost, not some inflated chargeof $10 for an aspirin that has nothing to do with reality.
The next fix is to create competition among insurance companies. They need to be able to compete nationally. We need to get employers out of the health insurance business so that insurance companies are creating and marketing insurance products to individuals. Emplyoyer provided health insurance eliminates competition and hurts individual byers and people who work for small firms.
This is only a start on the low hanging fruit. Our healthcare system needs to make tough decisions on where and how money should be allocated. This will require tough decisions on more preventative care and ways to track it; and reducing what is spent to keep people alive at the end of their life.
Thank you! This is what I'm looking for!
There are some inherent disparities in the way health insurance is provided. Why can't insurance companies compete across state lines? Why can't individuals, but only employers, get tax deductions for insurance premiums? All of this, on top of what I've already mentioned, skews the market.
I can't turn on the TV without seeing a commercial for car insurance, and I'm sure you have noticed the same. Geico, Allstate, eInsurance, StateFarm, Progressive, etc. Why is that??? Wouldn't you love for Flo to be saying she could save you 15% on your health insurance??
Sure, these health insurance companies are advertising, but what are they selling and to whom. Most people are not buying from them; their employer is selecting several products and giving employees a choice of which one to pick in their cafeteria benefit plan.
Because car insurance and health insurance are completely different. For one, the states highly regulate auto insurance and anyone must have it to own a car. Call that the individual mandate.
Next, let’s say that you are self-employed, and lucky enough to have found a company to provide you with health insurance. Then, let’s say you develop cancer. You suddenly find out that your insurance company stinks. So you think you're going to switch to one of those companies that advertize on TV?
Of course not. You’re screwed. Now you have a pre-existing condition. There’s not an insurance company out there that wants to cover you. So you don’t switch. You scream, and curse, and cry, but you’re stuck. Only healthy people have the luxury of picking and choosing.
Let’s also not forget that most people don’t find out that they’re not getting “good service†until they’re sick. Healthy people don’t make much use of their insurance, so they don’t know how bad it is. They only find out after they’re ill, and then it’s too late. It’s only fun to fire the insurance company if you’re sure you can go to another company to get what you need. Almost no one can.
Try buying some cancer only insurance. That covers cancer much better and for a lot less money. Seldom will you have something happen like my son did recently when his health insurance company informed him that they would be paying 100% on his cancer claims from now on. Some BCBS companies aren't really so bad.
Just one contradiction, and that's that states don't require it unless you use their roads. You can own a vehicle and keep in on private land and not have to pay insurance.
Anyway, moving on...
Why isn't health insurance geared more towards catastrophic type coverage? Is it the litigious nature of people in this country causing Doctors to do unneeded test?
I've shopped around and a routine doctor's appointment is around $90. I have a wife and 4 kids and we go to the Dr probably 5 times a year...that's total, not individually. I pay almost $500/month for health insurance that I never use and I have to pay a deductible!!
Honestly, I don't know who to point the finger at. I do know that turning it over to the government is a BAD idea, but it has to be fixed.
Let me tell you that one of the best examples of bad insurance is Medicare although it costs the individual nothing. It is an example of what happens when the government is in charge of what gets paid.
Let me tell you that one of the best examples of bad insurance is Medicare although it costs the individual nothing. It is an example of what happens when the government is in charge of what gets paid.
The idea of medicare is a wonderful and much needed system. It's the PEOPLE that run it that are the problem. It's not the inception of government that is the problem. Government is good to a certain extent. It's the corrupt, selfish, self serving tyrants we have running OUR government that are the problem. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater because of your ignorant, one sided political ideology.
Let me tell you that one of the best examples of bad insurance is Medicare although it costs the individual nothing. It is an example of what happens when the government is in charge of what gets paid.
Could you cite some examples to support this? In my opinion, the biggest problems with Medicare are fraud issues with durable medical equipment suppliers. As far as efficiency, Medicare's administrative overhead costs are somewhere between 2% and 5%. Compare that to for-profit health insurers.
Could you cite some examples to support this? In my opinion, the biggest problems with Medicare are fraud issues with durable medical equipment suppliers. As far as efficiency, Medicare's administrative overhead costs are somewhere between 2% and 5%. Compare that to for-profit health insurers.
Are you kidding me? You're going to pin the blame of medicare fraud directly on DME suppliers? Haha...I guess all those doctors in their pearly white coats and their ivory towers would NEVER EVER commit medicare and medicaid fraud right?
I mean there is no way pain clinics in FL who are run by doctors would ever get caught with millions of dollars of cash in their attic because they are dispensing pain medication illegally and making a killing off of it. THE ENTIRE MEDICARE SPECTRUM of providers is corrupt....i.e. all levels. doctors, suppliers, patients, hospitals etc.
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