And one of these days the other holier than thou type is going to be struck with a catastrophic illness with no way to pay for it. Consider that for a change. You can throw the terms around but they go both ways.
I’m with you in part on this, Jim. I wish it was possible to purchase insurance for catastrophic illness or injury. But you can’t, because government won’t allow it.
If a small employer wants to be a good “social justice” guy and buy health coverage for his workers, and wants them to have as low a deductible as possible, but thinks, because he makes more and saves money, it’s his responsibility to pay a much larger deductible than his employees do, he’s going to have a problem. Let’s say that employer has a health savings plan and has saved a fair amount in it, and wants, oh, a $20,000 deductible for himself, but only a $500 deductible for his employees, or none at all.
Guess what? He can’t. It’s either $500 for all or $20,000 for all. Actually, you can’t get a $20,000 deductible here at all. $10,000 is the maximum. State law mandates that, and federal law requires that all persons in the plan be treated equally.So, since your employees can’t handle a $10,000 deductible, you can’t have one either. Gotta pay the higher rate that covers “routine” care, even if you’re willing to pay for that yourself.
So forget catastrophic insurance. You gotta buy the kind that pays for everytime a person wants to go to the Dr. for an upper respiratory infection and they charge $200. And, of course, that’s built into the premium. That’s not mean old capitalism. That’s the government, forcing insurance companies to do that.
And, since the insurance company has to pay for that visit for my cold, or rather, price the possibility that it might have to pay for it into the premium, the insurance costs more.
And, since it only costs insured people $20 to go to the doctor; sometimes only $10, they go for everything and get prescribed meds for it. And people wonder why MRSA is rampant. Now THAT’S an expensive rascal to treat.
Now, suppose 20 years ago I was diagnosed with a serotonin uptake deficiency or a thyroid deficiency and take medication for it. No trouble since. I’m stable and I’m fine. Well, I have to tell the insurance company that on the application. But let’s say I’m completely okay now. They’ll high rate me anyway. But suppose I say “well, just exclude that, then and give me the regular rate.” Nope. Can’t do it. Discriminatory. Gotta pay the high rate and have the coverage I don’t need or want.
But wait! Suppose I find that I can get a policy like I want in Montana. Oops! Can’t do that either. To write a policy in my state, the Montana company has to write it just like the kind in my state, or not do it at all.
And of course, if my state or the federal government wants to require insurance companies to cover AIDS treatment for “domestic partners” or abortions or birth control or sex change operations or vasectomies or viagra, that’s built into the premium too, even though I don’t need that coverage and don’t want to pay for anyone else’s abortion or sex change operation or viagra. No way out. The government can say I have to pay for it anyway or have no coverage at all, and often does.
No, Jim, I’m with you. I would like to be able to buy catastrophic care insurance and pay my own way for “routine” stuff. If I live a fairly healthy lifestyle and save money in my health savings account instead of blowing it on Chinese imports, I might even be able to afford it. Maybe one of these days, it will be allowed.
