When I got my first apartment on my own, the landlord included the utilities in the rent. Since it was included, I ran the dishwasher everyday, didn’t worry about turning off lights, kept the temperature just right, even if I would be gone all day, and took nice long showers. After a few months, the landlord told me that my utility bills were really high so that I would need to start paying the water and electricity bills. My rent would be lowered some to accommodate this. Since I now was responsible for directly paying the utility bills, I was much more frugal.
This is the answer to health insurance. The best way to control costs is to have people directly pay for their health insurance and health care. When we have our employer (or worse yet, the government) pay for our health insurance, we tend to run to the doctor for any little thing, doctor’s run more tests than are really required, and costs spiral out of control. If we actually had to pay for our health insurance directly, we would be more frugal. If we wanted low co-pays, we would have to pay higher premiums. If we could live with a high deductible, our premiums would be lower and we would think twice before going to the doctor for something.
There was a time in my career where my employer did not offer a good health insurance plan for Ohio where we lived. I was given the option of taking the money the company paid for health insurance per employee and getting my own policy. I had many plans to choose from and saw quickly that I could save a lot on my monthly premiums if I went with higher deductibles and co-pays. I chose this option and it worked out great. We were covered if anything catastrophic happened but if we were relatively healthy, we saved some money. My employer now gives us a few options and that is how we receive health insurance today. I wish we could go back to having more choice and seeing the costs more directly.
Government run health insurance or health care is not the solution. As with most things, it is individual liberty and freedom that are the answers.
Daniel Horowitz
Neil Stevens
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Jake Walker
The insurance companies already do what your landlord told you
opoconservative Wednesday, November 18th at 11:28PM EST (link)If you get too sick, they’ll cut you out of their program. That simple. If you’re a fat baby, you won’t get coverage in the first place.
Most people would agree with you that we need cheap plans that cover only catastrophic issues and the patient has to pay everything else (above a huge deductible, say $5000) out-of-pocket. We actually are moving towards this system slowly, with HSAs. But, the problem here, is that people like having their insurance cover everything so they never have to think about these bills. If everyone was offered cheap catastrophic insurance, most would choose it without fully comprehending what it meant. What would happen is that a year from now you’ll have people complaining about how they have thousands of dollars of OOP expenses, and the system would revert back to what it was.
we already have those
mom2oneson (Diary) Wednesday, November 18th at 11:55PM EST (link)Those have been available for a long time. I just posted a comment about it. A policy with a 7 or 10,000 deductible is very inexpensive. People want to beat insurance companies and get their money worth in thier way of thinking.
BTW I have no problem with people wanting everything covered – I’d love to have a policy like that but it isn’t inexpensive and they shouldn’t expect it to be.
Choices
rnyancey (Diary) Sunday, November 22nd at 7:48PM EST (link)Each year at my company I get questions from employees about which health insurance option to choose. They have the choice of higher deductibles and co-pays with no premium deduction to lower deductibles and co-pays but the employee has to cover some of the cost of the premium. I show them that the higher deductible option is always the better option, even in the worse case scenario. The option, however, does require them to save the difference to pay the deductibles and co-pays and many choose the lower deductible and co-pay plan because they have not learned good money management skills. Unfortunately, many do not even have a choice and just have to take the plan that they are offered. If all people had many options to choose from and could choose the option that worked best for them, we would all be better off.
Bob Yancey
I don't believe that for a second.
Menlo (Diary) Thursday, November 19th at 1:49AM EST (link)Do you think people LIKE taking the time to go to the doctor and get tests? Unless you are referring to hypochondriacs, that is the silliest thing I’ve heard. Your excessive use of utilities is not comparable as that was obviously done carelessly or for kicks and giggles. Unless they had bad doctors (and Obama was right about excessive recommendations), people don’t take off several hours to sit in those waiting rooms and see a doctor for no reason.
The reason many people would prefer employer insurance is because it gives better benefits and relies on a generous preexisting condition policy without personal underwriting. Individual policies operate under a very different set of rules, laws, and benefits. Coverage is inferior, and the application process is totally out of line and unjustified.
Employees do pay for their insurance; they just don’t see it before they get their paycheck. While this may be less true of those on government assistance, most of those people also do not carelessly seek medical care. I think we should be careful not to make health care seem like some sort of fun treat or amusement park ride.
This is why children strongly oppose government health care.
“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.” -Felix Frankfurter
Trips to the Doctor
rnyancey (Diary) Sunday, November 22nd at 7:53PM EST (link)The problem is that most employees don’t see health insurance as something they pay for, they believe it is something their company pays for. Therefore, they demand better and better coverage and don’t see a connection with their salary. I have found many families, especially those with small children, do tend to run to the doctor for every runny nose. If people actually had to write out a check each month for their health insurance premium and their doctor visits, they would treat health insurance differently.
Bob Yancey
I don't think so.
Menlo (Diary) Sunday, November 22nd at 10:06PM EST (link)If they go to the doctor for a runny nose, then they belong with a mental health professional. At the very least, insurance should reject the claim for such a visit. When I was under my parent’s employer insurance, it did not cross my or my parents’ minds to see a doctor when I had the flu and could barely move for a week. I never even had a doctor after kindergarten. I had no need.
I guess I should not find it hard to believe how nutty some people and parents are in today’s society.
I had always been taught the advantage of employer health care is its automatic acceptance, benefits, and preexisting condition limits. I know some employers do in fact offer such policies and require employees to pay the premiums. I think employees should be content with that.
I just don’t like the idea of portraying health care in general as a want rather than a need without evidence (besides personal experience) that even a significant minority of people use it needlessly.
“The ultimate touchstone of constitutionality is the Constitution itself and not what we have said about it.” -Felix Frankfurter