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JackSpratts · 06-10-04, 07:52 AM

i buy health insurance for myself, and just myself...no children or other dependents. it's a great plan albeit one with a fairly high deductible; but once that's met there are no co-pays or other nickel and dime things that bleed you to death. it does not however cover eyeglasses or dentists. it will cover transplants, long term care, hospitalization etc up to $5 million total. it costs me around $250.00 a month. it has more than paid for itself. having said that i realize even 250 can be out of reach of many individuals, and those with dependents would have to pay more, while those with "pre-existing conditions" would have to pay much, much more - if they could even find an underwriter willing to cover them to begin with. i sometimes think health insurance is the worst thing that's happened to the west, that in fact it should be banned. i happen to think you can't actually have an economy in which people can't buy what you're selling. as it applies to health care, if people - all people - had to pay out of their pockets the true cost of care as it stands now they wouldn't be able to - so to my way of thinking the market would have to adjust to reality and configure itself so it was supportable by it's customers, in this case the patients. in short order we'd go from most people not being able to afford it to the opposite: most people enjoying and affording good health care with lots of marketplace choices. there will always be the poor among us, those that really can't afford anything at all, and it will always be a problem accommodating them in any area, whether it's food, housing or health care, but to have a marketplace that essentially no one can participate in is the definition of dysfunctional, and unless that basic dichotomy is addressed all the health insurance schemes in the country, whether republican (brutally stingy) or democratic (optimistically overreaching) will not fix this increasingly dangerous problem.

- js.

06-10-04, 07:52 AM	#24
JackSpratts Join Date: May 2001 Location: New England Posts: 10,018	i buy health insurance for myself, and just myself...no children or other dependents. it's a great plan albeit one with a fairly high deductible; but once that's met there are no co-pays or other nickel and dime things that bleed you to death. it does not however cover eyeglasses or dentists. it will cover transplants, long term care, hospitalization etc up to $5 million total. it costs me around $250.00 a month. it has more than paid for itself. having said that i realize even 250 can be out of reach of many individuals, and those with dependents would have to pay more, while those with "pre-existing conditions" would have to pay much, much more - if they could even find an underwriter willing to cover them to begin with. i sometimes think health insurance is the worst thing that's happened to the west, that in fact it should be banned. i happen to think you can't actually have an economy in which people can't buy what you're selling. as it applies to health care, if people - all people - had to pay out of their pockets the true cost of care as it stands now they wouldn't be able to - so to my way of thinking the market would have to adjust to reality and configure itself so it was supportable by it's customers, in this case the patients. in short order we'd go from most people not being able to afford it to the opposite: most people enjoying and affording good health care with lots of marketplace choices. there will always be the poor among us, those that really can't afford anything at all, and it will always be a problem accommodating them in any area, whether it's food, housing or health care, but to have a marketplace that essentially no one can participate in is the definition of dysfunctional, and unless that basic dichotomy is addressed all the health insurance schemes in the country, whether republican (brutally stingy) or democratic (optimistically overreaching) will not fix this increasingly dangerous problem. - js.