Mend Your Diet

Health insurance should be more like car insurance, you pick the coverages and the deductibles to meet your?

The health-care debate has centered on the uninsured. That so many people do not have health insurance is a consequence of foolish government policies: regulations that raise the price of insurance, and a tax code that ensures that most people get their insurance through their employer. If you don’t work for a company that provides health insurance, you’re out of luck. People locked out of the insurance system still have access to health care. But they often end up in emergency rooms because they did not receive preventive care. For most people, however, it is another aspect of our employer-based health-care system that causes the most trouble: the insecurity it creates. People worry that if they switch jobs, they will lose their health insurance. They worry that their company will cut back on health benefits. Universal coverage is not necessary to address these worries. Making it possible for individuals to own their health-insurance policies themselves, rather than getting them through their companies, would solve the problem. It would also reduce the political momentum behind socialized medicine.

Public Comments

1. you want your health insurance to go down? Call you congress man or woman and tell them to boot the free loaders from south of the border
2. That will only fix part of the problem. The unnecessary high prices, etc, don't make that feasible.
3. not just the uninsured. Millions more have awful insurance and if a serious illness or medical emergency occurs they will have a rude awakening and bills as far as the eye can see. They'll go bankrupt and this will also hurt hospitals and doctors b/c they'll see no money. The private sector has failed in fixing the healthcare crisis...it created the crisis. Single payer healthcare will allow the govt. to negoiate and that'll result in reduced healthcare costs. Benefits everyone. France does this and it's no surprise they have the number one healthcare system in the world.
4. Very good points. The things that you left out is because of how coverage has grown over the years, that in itself has driven up the prices of health insurence through the roof. Just imagine if they made car insurance like health insurance. Can you imagine how the prices would shoot up if your car insurance covered things like replacing wiper blades or air filters? This is no exageration either.
5. In the greatest country on earth, and we all argue over health care, shouldn't we just make it non-profit? I thought the whole point of being in the medical field was to help people, not get rich? I'm not saying people shouldn't be able to make a decent living in health care but wouldn't we all be better off if the industry wasn't paying outrageous salaries to many without any kind of medical background, instead of a business background and the letters CEO, CFO, COO, etc. behind their plagues in their corner offices?
6. I agree, and I do like your idea, not bad at all. I am not for universal health care.
7. Actually, individual health insurance is already that way. I could get you a policy with a zero deductible and I could get you a policy with a $25,000 deductible, and almost everything in between. You can get policies with unlimited doctor visits for a co-pay, limited doctor visits (2, 4, or 6 per year) for a co-pay, or no doctor visits. You can get policies with or without prescription coverage. You can get policies that have X-rays and lab work for a co-pay or that have X-rays and lab work subject to the deductible. You can get policies that cover maternity and policies that don't. The problem with the selection is that it makes health insurance very complicated. In my area there are nearly 1000 different options available to you. People try to find a policy using the internet to compare those 1000 plans instead of using an agent; then they get upset because the policy they got (usually because it's the cheapest) doesn't cover want they want covered. Group policies do have fewer options, but that is because nobody wants to pay for more options. You can get nearly all the options available to individuals in a group policy, but because of the mentality of the employees expecting every little sniffle to be covered the group policies are usually limited to one or two options for each employer.
8. I agree that our employer-based health-care system is a problem, and there needs to be a better solution for our health insurance needs. I am not sure where you are located, but there is a new company offering low cost individual health plans in Texas for young, reasonably healthy people, and is a great health insurance solution for people who are not covered through their place of employment. You buy into a plan at a super low cost with fixed benefits that will cover the typical activities and preventative care of a healthy person. Then, if something catastrophic happens, you have the option to get additional levels of coverage, even AFTER the event. A healthy male 25-years-old (and under) would pay under $100 a month for basic coverage. Check them out at http://www.precedent.com Even if you’re not in Texas, my understanding is that they’ll be offering plans in additional states soon.