Insurance Stupidity 4/3/2013

I just read this over at Money.com discussing the fact that over half of current individual plans do not meet the new minimum coverage provisions set forth in ObamaCare…so of course, cost will be going up. The problem is, if you don’t need all that stuff, you are now going to be forced to buy it anyway. Imagine you are in the market for a car…all you need is basic transportation, which you can probably get for about $20k (new). But when you get to the dealer…it turns out there is a new ObamaCar mandate…sorry, no more cheap cars….the base model is now a Cadillac Escalade…all options….$80k starting price. There is no doubt that the Escalade is probably a better vehicle than the Focus you wanted…but it’s not what you need, and now you can’t even afford a car period. How awesome is that?

The truth about Obamacare, and the entire medical insurance industry in general, it that it is just one more way for the old and wealthy to screw over the young, poor, and healthy. The game is to pull in as many young and healthy people into the pool who pay way more in premiums than they use. For example, from the time I officially entered the workforce at 21, until my early 30’s, I had exactly one medical expense…stitches in my chin…all under my deductible, I think it ended up costing about $1000 (most expensive 3 minute jet ski ride ever). Over that time, my employer paid $10k per year, and I put in a few thousand more, so lets just say over 10 years, I contributed $120k, and had exactly zero insurable events. This is exactly what they want…and this is the entire purpose of Obamacare….to pull in the young, healthy, and “underinsured” population into the pool and overcharge the crap out of them to keep costs low for the old, fat, and sick.

The solution to all of this isn’t to band together providing a gigantic insurance pool from which we can all demand an infinite amount of medical service. The solution is to return to personal responsibility, and return to the basics, making health insurance more like car insurance. That is…you pay for routine maintenance, fuel, ect….the insurance company pays if your vehicle is stolen, totaled by an uninsured motorist ect… Under this model, you would pay for your Dr. visits, your medicine, and the arm you broke skateboarding (or jetskiing). Insurance would kick in if you were diagnosed with cancer, were seriously injured in a car accident ect… Furthermore…we have to become responsible for the choices we make that affect our health. For example, if you decide to smoke…fine….but in addition to the $5/pack…you  also better start saving some money for the $1 million cancer treatment/lung transplant you are going to need in 15 years because that’s on you…insurance isn’t going to cover it, and neither is society. We must be prepared to accept the consequences of our own decisions. The other biggie is food. If you want to eat yourself to death….that’s your personal choice…and I get it…because I love food too. But if you are 35, and weigh 400 lbs, can’t work, need a heart transplant and a ton of medicine just to stay alive because you eat  6000 calories of McDonalds a day….I hope you saved up for it because society simply can not, and should not pony up the million bucks for your treatment. Personal responsibility folks… just own it. That’s what made this country great…and the lack of it is what is actively tearing it down.