Last Thursday, as I was chatting with a friend on line, I started to notice myself feeling worse and worse. What started as a slight cough earlier in the day rapidly progressed into a headache, chills, body pain, a fever, and fatigue – in short, I got sick. The worst of the symptoms passed relatively quickly but today, for days later, I still have a cough, stuffy nose, and a slightly sore throat.
“Why not go to the doctor?” You might ask yourself – fair point. I didn’t go to the doctor because I have no way of affording it. You see, I am 25, college educated, contributing member of society that has a 9-5 job and no heath insurance. “Well, Curtis, you could get it if you wanted to.” You may briskly reply. Well, yes and no. You see I could spend the minimum $130 a month through a private provider for a healthy Male who does not smoke…but then I would have trouble paying of the debt I racked up while going to college, again trying to be a more productive member of society. Furthermore, it would delay my ability to purchase a car, an apartment, and the furnishings associated with that – stunting the economy ever-so-slightly – in the process.
Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to have health insurance, I really would. And I would pay for it if I felt that it was something I could actually afford. I feel that many of the people who have health insurance and complain about the “socialist” movement to ensure that everyone is insured does not really understand what insurance is: legalized gambling.
Take my auto insurance, for example. I bet my insurance company $120 every month that I will get into an car accident; the company, in return, takes the $120 and says that I won’t get into an accident. Now, the insurance company has been right 99 percent of the time, but the one time I won the bet, insurance had to pay out. Now auto insurance is something I have to pay for the privilege of driving, but health insurance is a bet I don’t have to take, and at $130 a month I am simply not willing to bet a company that I will fall ill. This month it was a bad bet, but the past nine or ten I have made out like a bandit.
Ah, but I am not holding out simply because I am some sort of daredevil who does the dew and lives life to the extreme (insert guitar wail here), no I am just a guy who is trying to live his life and, again, contribute to the world around him. I would gladly pay the money for heath insurance, however the price is simply cost prohibitive – it is the same reason I don’t fly an airplane or drive a BMW; the difference is that the last two would probably shorten my life when compared to insurance.
So, arch conservatives, I want you to tell me why I am wrong in supporting a government system that will provide me with something I want and need when others in the market have priced me out of it? Am I wrong for wanting to be healthy? Am I wrong for thinking it should be affordable? Am I wrong for thinking that, in the greatest country on earth, I should be able to go to the doctor when my throat is sore? I dare say not.
You may complain that I am stealing from your pocket, but I dare say that I am more valuable healthy than sick. I, too, pay my taxes, go to work, and help make the economy run. The only difference between you and me is that you are on the winning side of the equation and were lucky enough to have a company or big enough coffers to help you buy insurance.
Have you considered the fact that a government program might actually help you too? Indeed, a government option would mean another competitor in the market, breaking up the near monopoly currently in place. Also, a healthier nation is a more productive nation. I missed half a day of work for no reason other than the only medicine I could take was rest and over the counter drugs. Let us also not forget the moral obligation we have to our brothers and sisters – indeed you can judge a people based on how they treat the unprotected. Also, if I do have to go to the emergency room because of a fever and can’t pay for it, you do anyway – so what do you have to loose? Finally, if you are so concerned about your own pockets, just remember that taxes are the price civilized societies pay to stay that way.
Please, just tell me I am wrong – I will be sure to cough on you.
Honestly? Public option puts the effort into the wrong end of the problem.
In most states, a single insurer dominates 80%+ of the market. That’s a sign of very unhealthy competition and, dare I say it, a monopoly. Consider that the Wastach Front’s health care system is practically owned by IHC. Sure, there’s a bunch of smaller providers and many fill happily double your premium for the, er, “privilege” of visiting an IHC facility. But is that really competition? The closest hospital for me that isn’t IHC is St. Mark’s and I’m clear down at 10600 S. Granted, St. Mark’s is an awesome facility, but the lack of geographically nearby health facilities not owned by a single company is telling.
A big problem with insurance domination is that they call the pricing shots. They continually cut the rates they will pay doctors and hospitals who, in turn, have to raise their rates for everyone without insurance to try and make up the difference and put pressure back on the insurer to not cut any further. Doctors are, in my experience, sympathetic to this problem and often offer cash discounts for patients who don’t put them through insurance hell. In all of it, we don’t have much power to demand lower costs or allow supply-and-demand to bring prices back to where they should be.
The issue I take with public option is that instead of trying to trust-bust powerful companies like IHC, it creates a new trust owned by the government designed to put the old trust out of business. I have little faith that the payment rates for doctors set by a government program will be any fairer or more equitable than those set by private insurers and you can darn near guarantee that they will not adjust for cost of living between different markets.
If you’re a business owner and your options are to pay for the public option whether you use it or not, are you really going to maintain your private insurance? My magic eight ball says that all signs point to yes.
So yes, we need to do something. Creating new government programs in the midst of high deficits and little loan money to go around when we should be bonking heads Teddy Roosevelt-style isn’t it. Cough away.
[...] Holly is telling Senators about God’s will, Curtis lays out the case for health care reform, and Djinn (who explains how your health care can be canceled if you get sick) wonders if Sarah [...]
Curtis. Though I liked the blog entry, it seemed to try to tug on the heart strings a little too much. I ask (I suppose I should add sincerely, since I am usually sarcastic) how much would government healthcare cost the individual (comparing it to Canada’s cost would be both unfair and not a representation of the American cost [just to get that out of the way])?
the second thing I take issue with is saying that you cannot afford health care because you need to furnish your apt. To me that is about priorities. That would be comparable to saying I can’t afford education because I need to go to the strip club.
Anyway, just my two cents from someone sucking off the unemployment teet ;)