The Health Insurance Dilemma - Part 1

Many have blogged about wanting to see universal healthcare here in the US. The advantages are numerous, as are the disadvantages!  Anything that is taken over by government looses something in the process.  When I lived in England, I got a sore throat and following the protocol for socialized medicine I went to a clinic.  I was told to go home and gargle with warm salt water.  A week went by and I started to have a raging fever and swallowing had become a problem.  I ended up in a private practice, where I was diagnosed with strep and prescribed meds.  I paid out of pocket for the office visit, but I got the care I was seeking and it was worth every penny.  So socialized medicine had problems, reluctance to offer real medical attention for a simple illness.  But it does offer every citizen a place to go no matter what your financial or medical status.  At the time I lived there, many in England went to private practices and paid for services out of pocket. I don't know if that has changed.

For those who loved, or hated, Michael Moore’s movie Sicko, what most people failed to understand was that every case he used for showing the failure of the system, he picked an HMO and a patient with chronic illness or health care needs beyond the norm.  Not one example of failure was a PPO.  HMOs were designed for young, healthy individuals who didn’t need significant health care.  I can remember having this discussion with my dad when HMOs were being introduced, and he told me never buy into an HMO because of my diabetes.  He should know, he helped set them up in Pennsylvania.

Too often health insurance comes down to price tag.  For EMS, firemen and police, their jobs are high risk and HMOs are not designed for serious injuries that require extensive medical care for the rest of their lives.  Sicko was a great example of that problem.   For me, Moore guided viewers into blaming healthcare companies, namely HMOs, that were never intended for long term care. It would have been better if the movie explained that policies are being sold for the wrong reason: cost, and this has lead to signifigant lapses in coverage for many.  Another consideration Moore should have taken was to questions whether people need to rethink an HMO policy after a certain age. Could another answer have been that the city of NY should have considered negotiating a healthcare package that would consider the needs of employees in high risk jobs and, if needed, compensation to help?  Moore's answer to the problem was socialized medicine.

Most insurance brokers, and the companies they represent, don’t want the market to change, they make too much money and the perks are tremendous!  Free cruises and trips, flat screen TVs, cash handed out weekly for the most policies sold, cash cards for gas, the perks are numerous and unfair to the public whose paying for it. The “reward game”, which is exactly what it is, does nothing more than propagate greed and the business looses site of the people they should be working for.