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Thursday, March 28. 2013

The Meaning of Health "Insurance"

Obamacare is not medical insurance in any real sense of the term "insurance." It is set up to pay your medical bills. It is no freebie, however. It's expensive.


Coyote splains it one more time: The Meaning of Health "Insurance"


I have two annoyed comments, and a few brief questions:


- Would my hernia repair have cost me $18,000 to the hospital if there were no insurance?


- Obamacare will render my medical insurace plan, an old-fashioned family Major Medical, illegal next year. So I can't keep the insurance I like.


- Will it be illegal for businesses, and rich folks, to self-insure under Obamacare? How would that work? And what about people like me, who like to pay their doctors themselves? Will that be permitted? What if I want to take Granny to Switzerland for herbal treatments for her dementia?


Posted by The Barrister in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects, Our Essays at 14:19 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (2)

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Agreed and private insurance had little about it that resembled 'insurance' which is the primary problem.

I'd prefer we'd get closer to the concept of actual insurance which is pooled assets to protect an individual from financial ruin as part of reform before jumping into these impossibly complex and inifficient schemes.
#1 phil g on 2013-03-28 16:17 (Reply)
A small nuance, but insurance is not the pooling of assets to protect an individual. Rather it is the transfer of the risk of a loss from one party to another in exchange for some type of payment. Now, as we understand the insurance market today, people indirectly are pooling their assets and spreading the risk among a larger number of individuals, but that's an operational choice that an insurer MAY make and not the definition of insurance.

The difference is important because the form of insurance the Democrats favor is still transferring risk from one party to another. The problems with their plan are (1) by covering things that are essentially universal in their incidence (i.e. the risk of is 100%) rather than those that are truly catastrophic and unusual (uncommon) events, the premiums must necessarily be as high or higher than if no insurance middleman was present, (2) they have created a moral hazard whereby people have little or no incentive to economize on their medical care - if "someone else" is paying for it, there's little incentive to refrain from seeking care for trivial complaints, and (3) their overriding goal is not insurance or even health care, it's wealth transfer in order to buy votes.
#1.1 Mike M on 2013-03-28 19:15 (Reply)
As to the last, I'd say no, eventually for business and probably immediately for individuals.

Some 20 years ago in Hawaii, I was in the service. Had a wart on my finger I decided to have it removed. Long wait to see the Navy clinic dermatologist, so I decided to pay for it myself. Made an appointment, quite soon, verified the cost, showed up and it was done, no fuss, no muss.

Except at the front desk, I scandalized the ladies there by offering them cash. It took a while to explain that I wasn't some degenerate, escapee from the state healthcare plan, but a simple sailor who chose to pay cashy money for convenience. Plus save the taxpayer a buck or two over a minor procedure. They relented and took my money but I think they felt dirty afterwards. I on the other hand felt like a free person.
#2 JKB on 2013-03-28 16:40 (Reply)
Obamacare was never about insurance or even insuring those who were uninsured. It was intended to bring us socialized health care and when it was written more then half of it was pork and benefits for special interest groups and cronies all of which has nothing to do with healthcare. It is without a doubt the worst legislation ever passed in congress and that is a tough standard to exceed. it will destroy our economy and in all probability destroy our country in the process. It must be repealed in it's entirety, not amended, not partly repealed but completely reversed. If there is the desire and will for a federal health insurance plan it should be open to debate and should exclude anything and everything not related to the issue and not be a vehicle for other legislation and pork. Then if the politicians truely believe they have created that perfect plan instead of passing it in the dead of night they should put it to the vote of the public.
#3 GoneWithTheWind on 2013-03-28 20:41 (Reply)

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