This is a rant about what became the Affordable Care Act, when it was just RomneyCare. Now that we have a full family with an assortment of medical needs, good health insurance is pretty great. The teacher’s union negotiates for the benefits, so go unions.
What would be better is single-payer national health care. But I’ll save that for a new post.
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006
Taxachusetts just passed a law that will soon force everyone to have health insurance. Subsidies for those who can’t afford it and penalties for those who can but choose not to. And for businesses who don’t offer insurance.
One of the reasons I hate health insurance is that I have never found a plan that I will use. I want emergency medical (ER, bambulance etc) for trauma. I want some help with glasses and dentist (one must see and chew to survive, no?). That’s it. But I can’t find a minimalist plan like that. Why pay for services that aren’t going to be used?
It’d be great to find a plan that covered prevenative health programs (not just disease management) like exercise clubs, chiropracty, nutritional supplements etc. Something that pays to stay healthy so there’s fewer actual medical bills.
Eddy and Allison have both been to see doctor’s recently (one is sick, the other pregnant). The bill shows that the doctors charge more than the insurance will pay, and then choose not to bill us for the balance. What that means is the medical industry is intentionally marking up their bill to get the most money from the insurance company that they can. If the cost of the service actually represented the charge, they would have to come after us in order to keep from losing money. And this is apparantly standard practice.
rawr. I hate insurance. I hate doctors and hospitals. I hate the state of health care and that victims of malpractice and mistake are being blamed for driving up the costs with “frivolous law suits.” How about frivolous markups? How much does actually marking the price up drive up costs?
Man, if I get cancer… fuck it. I’ll live it out as best as I can. Go carrot juice and algae 24/7. Sad thing is, insurance would pay for the drugs and surgery to make my longer life hell, but not the actual things that might take care of my health. yeah yeah. I’m young and invincible, right? sure. If that makes you feel better, think that.
/rant