Posted on 06/22/2009 9:20:50 AM PDT by nateriver
Young people will be suprised how fast health starts to fail as they age. One day you wake up and find you need glasses (and I mean "need"!), having never worn or needed glasses for anything before in their lives. Or they find their thyroid has deteriorate, or they have high cholestorol (due to hereditary circumstances).
Yes, it happens that quick.
Depends on what kind of insurance you’re getting. Certainly annuity life insurance is an investment.
At my health level I already know the insurance company will come out ahead. That’s a given and I’m grateful for it. The question is how much ahead and am I willing to tolerate it. $1200 bucks a year ahead AND I still get stuck paying every cent of my medical is, in my book, 100% unacceptable. I don’t pay that much for my term life insurance which is more likely to pay out than your medical policy would be for me.
The pre-existing condition rule is lame, I can see it for things like cancer, but way too often insurance companies use it to get out of chronic condition and thing they just don’t feel like paying for.
Of course meanwhile people CAN and do get medical access coverage, and frankly there’s nothing wrong with that. All I’m calling into question is your statement that “EVERYONE should do” the policy you’re on. For me in my health situation your policy charges too much to do too little. Maybe many people should be on your policy, maybe even most, but not even close to everyone.
Of course the insurance policy he outlined in post 2 probably wouldn’t pay out for any of those things you mention here.
Hmm . . that definitely is true for most insurance (life, car, home), but health insurance might (I say "might") just be a different animal, especially if someone wants to craft a policy that will help keep long-term costs down (I'm thinking preventive care here).
This being a (supposedly) free country, there should be nothing stopping someone from offering such a policy.
Being able to catch a potentially serious illness in its early stages drastically reduces the overall, or eventual, costs. That should be the goal of healthcare now - get costs under control without sacrificing quality.
However, so called “wellness” issues have always been oversold.
Preventive care really does NOT hold down costs. It might even increase costs, in many areas.
Yes, an individual who finds out about a medical issue, like diabetes, EARLY might well take some corrective action and reduce future costs.
However, if there is NO or LITTLE charge, to the public, for doctor's visits, the hypochondriacs among us will more than offset that savings, by burdening the system with too many office visits.
There is a “mortality charge” in any annuity product, which offsets the actuarial risk for life expectancy in that annuity.
Also, in Variable Annuities, there is a charge, a PREMIUM, against the “separate accounts” in the investment portion of the product, to offset market risk.
Given the SAME positive market performance, the same underlying investments, a “naked” mutual fund will produce a higher return than an identical investment through an variable annuity.
I love variable annuities. I sell variable annuities and health insurance.
However, it is wrong to look at the ENTIRE annuity as insurance, as far as the investment returns are concerned.
Likewise with variable life products, which I don't like as much.
Nor does Medicare allow the cost of a routine physical, after the first year, count towards the $135.00 Part B deductible.
Sadly, too true. There are people who abuse, and will abuse, the "system". But still, families with children really need insurance that is different than what seniors need, and that should be different from what healthy young, single (or childless couples) people need.
I really don't think a one-size-fits-all type of insurance benefits everyone (not that I say you are advocating such a thing).
So then the question is: how do you rein in runaway healthcare costs (starting with tort reform, I suppose . . . )?
Wow that was a lot of “refute” for one little throw away sentence that was largely besides the point.
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