Posted by
JDComments on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 1:41:02 PM
Several months ago I posted about the fallacy of "Health Insurance", something I consider just as threatening to us as the Islamic Jihad if we allow Liberals to impose any kind of Universal, government sponsored program . Now with California following Massachusetts in doing "HealthCare lite", and the Dems taking control of Congress, my anxiety level is rising, and so I am reprinting my original article:
Health Care and Social Security are the two weak points of the US economy, and unsurprisingly, both are Socialistic as opposed to Capitalistic entities.
In fact , Health Insurance is not insurance as defined and implemented in other ways, such as car or house insurance, but straight out socialism, where everyone pays in, and everyone takes out what they pretty much want.
True insurance is an actuarial function which uses probability to estimate and disburse risk, hence if ten people out of a 100 will statistically have an accident, the Insurance company spreads the estimated payments over the 100 payers, adds a little for profit, and makes a nice living while its insured rest easily.
Why is Health insurance different? Because just having it affects its usage, and therefore the actuarial tables are made useless. Think about it. Do you know anyone who says "well, I have health insurance, I might as well use it" and then proceeds to incur charges that they never would have if they weren't covered? I do, and most of you do as well I bet.
Well, there goes the insurance company's expectations, and next thing you know, premiums are rising, which incentivizes the insured to use even more services, and so it goes. This one fact, that the insured can use the insurance pretty much at their discretion, as opposed, let's say, to car insurance which requires an accident, and if you do that intentionally it is called insurance fraud, means that once you have insurance you are going to use it, and as much as possible.
And to magnify this vicious cycle, no one monitors the costs of health services supplied [I've asked numerous people if they know what their doctor charges for a checkup, and none knew anymore than their copayment]; insurance companies, after having tried HMO's to provide just such oversight and having been excoriated for it, pretty much pay whatever is asked and then just factor the ever rising price into the premium.
Put these pieces together, and you have an ever more used, unmonitored, uncompetitive economic ecosystem which is running riot, and the solutions being proposed are MORE insurance!
The answer is to allow the greatest economic system ever devised , capitalism and the free market, to work its magic. I can hear all the liberals out there gnashing their teeth, saying how this is an inhumane and horrible solution because we need health care to live. Well, we need food to live, but how many of you have food insurance? Yes, the destitute will need help, but that is fine, we should give it to them as we give them food stamps. But when a middle class person goes to a doctor for a cold, he or she should pay for it. Then they will know what their doctor charges, then they can make informed decisions as to whether the trip is necessary, and then doctors will have to compete on price just like all other professionals.
For truly catastrophic sicknesses we should have the appropriate insurance, which can work like real insurance,using probabilities to come up with a reasonable premium which will offer the peace of mind sought by the insured.
Liberals have managed to scare us into thinking that without insurance the world would collapse and we would all be dying of untreated diseases, or bankrupt from treating them. Health care can and should be treated like any service or product, and must be if we are not to be destroyed by its cost.
Socialism doesn't work , the world has proved that, so why something as important as healthcare should be subject to the pseudosocialism of insurance is just indicative of the success Liberalism has had in shaping some of our expectations. And like most Liberal programs, it has taken on a life of its own which will destroy us unless we open our eyes, and realize the Emperor has no cold.