bfl.
There is always a better way to help people without government.
Well, that was a waste of pixels.
Second step: Decide if those who have prepaid for a certain amount of sickness care (and you can make the certain amount "unlimited", if you like) and those who have not prepaid have the same standing when they are sick. By this I mean, does someone who has a heart attack that has prepaid get more, or better, care than someone who has not prepaid?
Third step: If you decide that pre-payers get more or better than parasites, then decide what parasites get, and where they get it, and how much they get. If you decide that pre-payers and parasites get the same (by statute, or by lawsuits, whatever), then decide who pays for the parasites (pre-payers, or taxpayers, or providers, or some combination of same).
With my car insurance, I’d never have a car accident in June, switch companies in July and expect the second company to pick up the tab.
I also would think it wouldn’t be legal for the first company to drop my coverage while the car was being fixed.
It’s not pre-existing conditions that are the problem. It’s that health insurance isn’t really insurance. It’s a health care payment system that doesn’t work.
BTW - I see from some responses that you’re taking some flack.
I thought it was a fine article.
” Chronic renal failure requiring hemodialysis is a fine example, but it is already covered by Medicare (irrespective of age)”
The writer missed that this is one of the big cuts to Medicare and happens in 2012.
How can an insurance firm cover preexisting without exorbitant premiums for everyone?
My insurance which is TN Rural Health/ Blue Cross and costs 500/month for family of 7 with no dental and 1000/per pay up front then submit drug plan has informed us they expect of rates to go up at least 43% as this is implemented and then up to 200% over 5 years just to cover all these new things.
There is a proven way. It’s called charity. Back in the day hospitals had charity wards that were just like the paying people’s ward but paid for by donations. My Boy Scout troop had a paper drive every fall to support the local charity ward.
Doctors were required to spend time on the charity cases as part of their deal to get privileges at the hospital.
Then in the late 60’s national socialists convinced people that it was demeaning to accept charity but up-lifting to have government make others to pay for their wants by force.
Very good article.
I’m replying because I want to be able to find it easily to quote later on.
Our family used to have health insurance. We paid through the nose for it — in 2007, it cost us $2000 a month. My husband is self-employed. There are no jobs in his field, especially for people his age.
During 2008 and 2009, my husband’s income decreased to 1/3 of what it was in 2007.
Mind you, we did not take vacations. I took the kids tent camping at a state park for years, which was very frugal. Our cars are 9 years old. We don’t have large wardrobes, boats or other recreational vehicles, we didn’t live in a McMansion, we lived low on the hog. We had to. It is expensive to finance a largish family.
We went through our savings. We had to drop the health insurance, which then cost $2500 a month, because we didn’t have the money to pay for it.
The problem is ME - my health. I had double coronary artery bypass surgery when I was 45 years old. My left main artery was 96% blocked. That’s the artery that is called the widow-maker. The other artery was also over 90% blocked.
The cardiologists could not figure out how I was still alive. I had no risk factors for this, which added to the mystery.
Two months after heart surgery, I had an angioplasty in a third artery and a stent put in the left main artery — they were both blocked over 70%. I had a very hard time persuading the doctors to do a cardiac catheterization because I’d just had the bypass surgery. They thought it was the stress of having so many kids and homeschooling that caused my physical problems!
So, I have severe left main artery disease, and no insurance. The drugs I am supposed to be taking cost $600 a month. I am not under a cardiologist’s care because we cannot afford that.
I’ve been looking for a job for over a year. I haven’t found one. We moved to another state 9 months ago, and there are no jobs here, not even at fast food places.
And that’s okay with me. Why? I’m not lazy, but I no longer have the stamina to work two jobs — a paying job and taking care of my house and family.
We had to move to another state because the cost of living in Mass was far too high. We lost our house, which was under water on the mortgage, and we couldn’t sell it due to the housing market. We didn’t have an ARM. We didn’t have a no-money down mortgage. We just couldn’t afford the payments any more. Our rent here is about 40% of our mortgage payment - cheap, because the house is tiny and it is in a rural area.
My husband very regretfully filed for bankruptcy yesterday. It took me a year to persuade him to do that, but it was our only option.
I’ve decided to go with prayer as my option. If I die, too bad. I hope I don’t, because my kids are in high school and they need me.
Thank God the rest of the family is healthy. It is much cheaper for us to get medical care for the kids ($75 per doctor visit) than it is to have health insurance.
Anyway, not all of us who are without health insurance are government teat-suckers. Some of us just plain have bad luck. All the pre-planning in the world would not have prevented what happened to us. We were blindsided by forces beyond our control.
There is long-term pre-existing condition in my household. For many year we could not acquire insurance for that individual, coverage on the condition or not. Then the state legislature passed legislation that simply stated that insurance companies that sold insurance here had to cover all comers. It costs more, but we have the insurance. All that happened about 12 years ago.
As it is presently constituted, the US Gubmint is a fraud.