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It's the middle of the night and I find myself pondering health insurance.
First, a confession:
I am deathly afraid of insurance companies and the bureaucracy involved. To me, the costs of health care doesn't make sense. I pay $100/mo for some bare-bones health care that doesn't even cover doctor's visits? But I have to have the health insurance because if I spend too long without any, then it's supposedly harder to get onto new ones later? Teeth cleaning costing $300? An ophthalmologist doing the same thing as an optometrist and costing $800? How much of it is covered? Is this thing they sent me a bill or not?
So, when given the choice of taking some over-the-counter drugs and hoping things heal themselves or (1) figuring out if it's covered (2) finding a doctor who'll accept the insurance (3) scheduling an appointment when I can't really take time off work, etc etc, I do the former.
As a result, I have very little knowledge of how the current insurance system works, except that it's BIG and SCARY and INEFFECTIVE. I've been on my mom's insurance, which was super-awesome but still full of forms and complexities. Then I was on my school's insurance, which was not only complicated but also covered very little. Now I'm on some sort of bare-bones insurance with a $2000 deductible which I didn't want to look at too closely.
I think a part of me just wants to pay directly for the quality of care. For example, I choose to get $15 haircuts instead of $75 haircuts. It's a conscious choice I make in terms of quality of service and quality of environment. I'd opt to go to a Chinese medicine doctor who'd give me a diagnosis and a week's worth of medicine for $50 instead of making an appointment for 2 weeks from now to see a doctor who'd charge me $25 copay and then refer me to another doctor, BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT I'M GETTING. For an x-ray, diagnosis, cast, and month of meds for a sprained ankle, I'm willing to pay up to $200. The problem, however, is that I'm not willing to pay $300 for teeth cleaning. That seems to be a $50 value, especially if we cut out the needless "let's x-ray your face again because then we can get more from the insurance company" part.
Ideally, for me, there'd be 2 health systems.
Type 1 is "Basic Stuff"
I'm talking about yearly check-ups of vision, health, dental, etc. I'd also include in here an annual psych check-in. I'd like this either to be
(a) like getting haircuts -- you see the price, you evaluate the worth, you pay for it. Let competition keep the costs low. I don't have vision insurance anymore because it's cheaper at Walmart/Costco. But it's hard to find those sorts of dentists.
(b) covered automatically by the government as a government service, like policemen. We're not talking about the fancy Dr. House MRI stuff here. Just yearly checkups and such. Maybe also life cycle stuff like birth?
Or some combination thereof. Like if I can hop on down to the local police station and get a checkup, some bloodwork, teeth cleaning, and an eye-check. Then they'd tell me I need to have 2 teeth filled in and a new pair of glasses and I need to exercise at least 20 minutes a day. So I go to Walmart and get glasses, and go to some dentist who got good reviews on Yelp for my teeth filling, and then go for a swim. Voila!
Type 2 is the "Big Stuff"
I'm talking about accidents, long-term illnesses, etc. The emergency, unexpected stuff. Unpreventable care.
This I'm willing to pay health insurance for. As a young person, sure I don't worry about cancer so much, but I do worry about getting hit by a car, falling from a cliff while hiking, etc. Plus in case I or my child needs depression or asthma meds. And I'm willing to pay into it now for the possible future of arthritis, diabetes, cancer, etc etc.
But at least this way I'll get to choose my insurance and deductible without cutting myself out of the basic care stuff.
First, a confession:
I am deathly afraid of insurance companies and the bureaucracy involved. To me, the costs of health care doesn't make sense. I pay $100/mo for some bare-bones health care that doesn't even cover doctor's visits? But I have to have the health insurance because if I spend too long without any, then it's supposedly harder to get onto new ones later? Teeth cleaning costing $300? An ophthalmologist doing the same thing as an optometrist and costing $800? How much of it is covered? Is this thing they sent me a bill or not?
So, when given the choice of taking some over-the-counter drugs and hoping things heal themselves or (1) figuring out if it's covered (2) finding a doctor who'll accept the insurance (3) scheduling an appointment when I can't really take time off work, etc etc, I do the former.
As a result, I have very little knowledge of how the current insurance system works, except that it's BIG and SCARY and INEFFECTIVE. I've been on my mom's insurance, which was super-awesome but still full of forms and complexities. Then I was on my school's insurance, which was not only complicated but also covered very little. Now I'm on some sort of bare-bones insurance with a $2000 deductible which I didn't want to look at too closely.
I think a part of me just wants to pay directly for the quality of care. For example, I choose to get $15 haircuts instead of $75 haircuts. It's a conscious choice I make in terms of quality of service and quality of environment. I'd opt to go to a Chinese medicine doctor who'd give me a diagnosis and a week's worth of medicine for $50 instead of making an appointment for 2 weeks from now to see a doctor who'd charge me $25 copay and then refer me to another doctor, BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT I'M GETTING. For an x-ray, diagnosis, cast, and month of meds for a sprained ankle, I'm willing to pay up to $200. The problem, however, is that I'm not willing to pay $300 for teeth cleaning. That seems to be a $50 value, especially if we cut out the needless "let's x-ray your face again because then we can get more from the insurance company" part.
Ideally, for me, there'd be 2 health systems.
Type 1 is "Basic Stuff"
I'm talking about yearly check-ups of vision, health, dental, etc. I'd also include in here an annual psych check-in. I'd like this either to be
(a) like getting haircuts -- you see the price, you evaluate the worth, you pay for it. Let competition keep the costs low. I don't have vision insurance anymore because it's cheaper at Walmart/Costco. But it's hard to find those sorts of dentists.
(b) covered automatically by the government as a government service, like policemen. We're not talking about the fancy Dr. House MRI stuff here. Just yearly checkups and such. Maybe also life cycle stuff like birth?
Or some combination thereof. Like if I can hop on down to the local police station and get a checkup, some bloodwork, teeth cleaning, and an eye-check. Then they'd tell me I need to have 2 teeth filled in and a new pair of glasses and I need to exercise at least 20 minutes a day. So I go to Walmart and get glasses, and go to some dentist who got good reviews on Yelp for my teeth filling, and then go for a swim. Voila!
Type 2 is the "Big Stuff"
I'm talking about accidents, long-term illnesses, etc. The emergency, unexpected stuff. Unpreventable care.
This I'm willing to pay health insurance for. As a young person, sure I don't worry about cancer so much, but I do worry about getting hit by a car, falling from a cliff while hiking, etc. Plus in case I or my child needs depression or asthma meds. And I'm willing to pay into it now for the possible future of arthritis, diabetes, cancer, etc etc.
But at least this way I'll get to choose my insurance and deductible without cutting myself out of the basic care stuff.
