Fixing Health insurance does not need to be difficult. It may require hard choices be made, but that’s what Congress is suppose to do.
Auto Insurance Cheap. – It was the headline from an email.
While I have never considered car insurance as cheap, I have shopped it from time to time. Just to see if I can save a dollar or two.
Here is what I know
I am deluged daily with auto insurance ads, either on television, by email, with website popups, while reading a newspaper, and the U.S. Mail.
You know them well. Good neighbor, you’re in good hands, funny skits of unusual accidents, and little lizards that can talk.
I often wonder why there is no crises with auto insurance. Insurance companies spend millions trying to convince us we’ll save money if we switch.
There are things that make switching difficult for some.
Driving offenses, like DUI’s. Too many lesser violations. Accidents or claims. They all effect our rates. Sometimes these events make it nearly impossible to buy insurance.
It is up to each of us to buy what we need. Insurance is required if we want to drive. It we can’t afford it, we don’t drive. No one suggests that others should pay our premium.
Car prices continue upward as cars become more complex. Technology seems to double every couple of years. Insurance gets more expensive. Despite the costs, government does not change the system or pay premiums for some.
I don’t see Congress offering to subsidize car insurance companies if they would cut back a little on auto insurance premiums.
This analogy isn’t perfect, but there is a point. With competition, insurance becomes like any other commodity. Those with a product understand they need to price it so people will buy. When a competitor cuts the price, the prices from other companies generally go down.
What would car insurance premiums be, if there were only two or three companies selling it?
Why is health insurance any different?
Sure, there are serious issues, like life long diseases that require insurance to survive. I get it.
Yes, it’s true, we pick our cars, but no-one can pick their health. I know that health insurance is more costly for those who have challenges.
With only a few exceptions, Congress can fix it without having to run anything as it relates to insurance. Any insurance.
Why don’t we see the same competition in health that we see in life, auto, and home insurance?
Why does 20% of the country get it for free? Because the government “wants to help”?
There is a way to protect those who might be considered uninsurable. To suggest that their cost should somehow be subsidized by tax payers is difficult to imagine.
When insurance companies are required to cover even the uninsurable, the extra costs get factored into all premiums. Everybody pays a little more so the less fortunate get coverage. It’s a plan that works.
Some want that coverage to be free or nearly free. They’re sick after all, have some compassion.
To suggest that their costs, those who are uninsurable, should be no more than those in the “best of health” is wrong.
To insure some for free, because of an artificial line, like income, while others carry the load is also wrong.
How it works with other insurances
When some one buys a muscle car with a zillion horse power, they pay more for insurance. Those who’s homes are on the coast and subject to hurricanes, have higher insurance premiums. When people have more health challenges than others, their costs will be higher.
A few years ago, the uninsurable were just that, unable to buy insurance, no matter what the cost. Not all, but some states had protection with high risk pools.
With a few rules, health insurers should be free to sell what they want to sell, where they want to sell it.
Taking part in high risk pools for the chronically ill should be required of all companies wanting to sell health insurance.
There needs to be changes in how doctors are protected from ridicules law suits.
Individuals should be allowed to form groups to spread risk and lower costs. There have been several examples of the idea. If you are a member of a credit union for example, you can join that group. Rates are determined by the experience of thousands of families, not just one.
Cost of health coverage will go down.
When people make the decision on what to spend, rather than dropping an insurance card on the counter thinking somebody else is picking up the tab, rates will go down.
When those who chose not to buy insurance, are not bailed out when they get sick, insurance will cost less.
When the poor have to contribute something, costs improve. That is not to acknowledge that there is real poverty that needs our help. But it’s not 20% of the country.
It’s alway easy to be Santa Claus when the gift is paid for by somebody else.
There needs to be changes in how Congress is influenced. We all know that when Congress gives something away, those that get it, will vote for the one who gave it.
Lobbyist spend millions to influence Congress.
Did you know that committee assignments are based in part, on how much money a Congressman brings into their party from lobbyists. Yes, Congress is For Sale.
Bottom line
If the government wants to buy favor from those who can’t or won’t pay their own way, then it’s time to go to a single payer plan.
Then everybody will be equal. Everybody loses.
Nobody goes to Canada because they have great health care. Single payer is horrible where ever it exists.
With single payer, rationed care is normal. There is a reason that there are more MRI facilitates in Chicago then in all of Canada.
We all know someone from Canada that had a family member die while on a waiting list. My friend tells of his dad waiting for heart bypass surgery. Six months was a month too long to wait.
Imagine our entire health care system being a mirror image of what our veterans deal with everyday.
That is rationed care. Don’t like what you get? To bad, there is no other choice.
Obama care is unsustainable. Premiums are more than mortgage payments. After that, deductibles would buy the family a new car.
The Republicans have claimed a have a better plan for 6 years or more. Now they can fix it and they won’t. They won’t because they are afraid to make a decision that could cost them a vote.
For a group that works only part time, who seem to get wealthier every year with a government job, who have pensions that others can only dream of, they sure seem to have a hard time getting work done.
When nearly $50 million is spent in one congressional race, and the job pays $174,000 a year, something is wrong. Really wrong.
What would we think, if fireman, policeman, solders and sailors, made decision to save themselves?
We need not think about it because they never will.
Why don’t politicians think like that? Fixing Health insurance could have been done in January. It is only difficult when those whose job it is to make decisions, can’t find the will to do it. It may require hard choices be made, but that’s what Congress is suppose to do.
If you have a thought, share it.