This is a philosophical post. It's appropriate because, years ago when I started the blog, I said I was "Plato pondering the meaning of health insurance".
I don't know why this is true, but I experience it over and over as I counsel people. Most people do not look at medical insurance the way they look at car insurance, house insurance or life insurance. The right objective for any insurance is to rarely use it unless something really bad happens. House and car insurance are supposed to rarely used. Predictable things aren't covered. If houses are build in an earthquake zone, people cannot even get earthquake insurance. If someone has a lot of car accidents they have to pay a whole lot for car insurance and become "assigned risk". Those policies never cover small stuff. If my house needs a repair, I pay for it. If my car needs new tires, I pay for it.
Why do people believe their Medicare insurance has to pay for every thing they need medically? Be sure Medicare insurance will pay for the BIG things. It's the same as being sure insurance covers a house flood or a one car crash. Two years ago, unfortunately, our two cars were demolished when a tree fell during a storm. Boy, was I glad we had good car insurance. Up until that time, we paid a whole lot of car insurance premium money for years and years and rarely used it. We are lucky we haven't needed to use to our house insurance. I'm really glad I didn't used my life insurance when I had a policy!
Buy Medicare insurance that is good for covering the "big" things that might happen even if it costs you more to do it and it doesn't cover small things like a doctor copay. Big things are things such as long hospital stays, inpatient physical and occupational therapy sessions, chemotherapy treatments, or limb loss prosthetics. If you are paying premiums and don't need to use you Medicare insurance, that's a good thing, not a bad thing.
Medicare Advantage advertisements and insurance brokers don't talk about the cost of covering BIG things. They talk about little stuff like primary doctor copays or dental cleanings. When a BIG thing happens, people on those plans often face astronomical bills and it can be financially devastating because those plans fall apart. It is also when people learn about the terms of their Medicare Advantage insurance policies.
Great post and good advice. But I think this suggests that psychologically, people really just want a nationalized health care system that takes care of them in comprehensive fashion. The whole thing should be a pooled risk, to be put on a socialistic basis, as a matter of basic human solidarity, not to mention financial and public health efficiency. Most other countries can manage that, particularly the UK, and we should be able to as well.
ReplyDeleteIs a nationalized health care system like a nationalized highway system? The US interstate highways are in disrepair because congress is not funding them properly but that's just an uncomfortable ride. Would congress properly fund a national healthcare system? If not, it'd be a lot more onerous. Medicare is not properly funded nor managed and hasn't been for many years. It is poorly managed, staffed, the fee for service payout is miserable, claims processing is a mess and it is influenced by insurance lobbyists, irrespective of administrations, such that the insurance industry sucks money out of Medicare budgets to enrich their companies. How would a nationalized health care system succeed given the US track record on managing these other things? How would it not become another "post office pawn"? Maybe we need to fix what we already have?
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