You Can't Get Anything at Alice's Restaurant
7 hours ago
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Killing yourself for health insurance
Over and over I hear of people doing things they don’t want to do -for the health insurance. My lovely wife was just telling me about another one. This woman is doing a job that will most likely get her seriously injured and she’s doing it for the health insurance. There’s another job that she’d really rather do but she thinks she can’t give up her health insurance. The thing is, she’s currently healthy -except for the constant wear and tear her job is doing to her.
The woman could actually do something she likes. If she quit her old job could be filled by a nice young strong person. She’d be healthy and happy, plus someone else could have a job. Still, she’s working the job that’s slowly killing her.
There’s a couple I know who got married because one of them lost health insurance. Both of them are healthy but they rushed into marriage for that all important health insurance.
What really drives me nuts is that the insurance that they are sacrificing for isn’t even that good. Plans have been whittled back until they don’t provide the same sort of coverage that they used to. The polices are written to conceal their true weaknesses. Even if a service is technically covered they deny payment on trumped up excuses.
I know from experience that fighting an insurance company is very hard to do -especially when I really was sick and not at my best. If my lovely wife hadn’t dealt with the insurance companies for me, it would never have been straightened out.
People are making large sacrifices for insurance only to get screwed by the insurance companies anyway. The decisions aren’t driven by logic. Destroying real health for something that may or may not help you when sick doesn’t make sense.
Fear is driving these decisions. Give up fear. Think the unthinkable.
-Sixbears
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All insurance is a racket, anyway. I recently dropped my home-owners because I simply couldn't afford it anymore. If my house burns, I'm in deep trouble, but what else am I to do. I also minimized my car insurance policies to the point of getting rid of collision. If an accident is my fault, I may no longer have a vehicle. Life sucks. You do what you have to do.
ReplyDeleteI did the same on vehicle.
ReplyDeleteI never could get past the idea that insurance was betting against myself.
Consider what would happen to the cost of medicine if everyone dropped their insurance.
ReplyDeleteBet the prices would collapse overnight...
Reality might actually kick in.
Sounds like fun, let's do it!
DeleteI went for the last half of my life without insurance until I got on medicare. I will not purchase any extra to go with it. I actually prefer to pay the docs myself, that way I can tell them for sure that they are working for me. I agree with Spud.
ReplyDeleteGood point Dizzy -make sure they know who they are working for.
DeleteWe have no home owner's insurance this time around. Figure we're on our way to being such minimalists, we won't miss it anyway. When we get a van we could live in it. If something happened before then we've discovered lots of places here that rent by week or month at RV parks.
ReplyDeleteLife's too short to worry all the time anyway.
I like Spud's idea! Problem is most people wouldn't do it. Too full of fear and conditioning. It amazes me how quickly people rush to the doc, even without insurance, for every little thing, thinking he dispenses magic potions that cure everything. Reminds me of when my grandma used to say, "Let me kiss it and make it all better."
It's amazing the things people go for the doctor for -stuff the doctor can't even treat. I try and stay out of hospitals. They are full of sick and dying people.
DeleteI gave up insurance a year ago. I've not missed it. Our country is one of the few (the only?) that uses basic emergency treatment as a for-profit endeavor.
ReplyDeleteA few months ago I took a head-long dive into a felled tree stump. Running at night. Yes, I continue to be my own worst enemy. If I had paid the hospital bills straight-up, it would have cost me well over $1,400 for six staples in my head - something I would have utilized a friend, the local veterinarian, years ago when he was still in practice.
The hospital sends the bills almost immediately to a collection company. I've paid in increments to them in the past and they STILL send to collections.
If one thinks about debt, firstly there is no contract between person A and the hospital. Regress thinking to a point in time when we lived in small villages and had real community and basic medical care was not something even charged for, much less profited from.
So now there is a third party interloper asking me for money. The hospital has been paid (by the debt collection company). That's why they "sold" the debt, to quickly capitalize on their "account".
I wrote the debt collection company offering to pay if they would provide me a signed contract (which in accordance with modern commercial rules (UCC) is required for one person to be in debt with another entity.
Nothing back. Zero, zip, zilch. Not even another bill.
Hmmm...
I do have a regular doctor I see. My regular office visits cost less than my copay did a year ago.
More hmmmm...
BriarPatch
Hmmmmm indeed. Love the signed contract thing.
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