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Health Care or Health Coverage

Folks are talking about Health Care, but in reality are talking about Health Coverage. The difference is vast and needs examination. Millions of Uninsured Citizens! Health Coverage implies needing Insurance Industry Products.
Health Care or Health Coverage? There is a distinction that is being overshadowed by the various groups involved.
Health Care is a system where if you get sick, you are cared for. Period.
OHMYGOD! Universal Health Care! Socialized Medicine!
We pay for it with two ways.
1. payroll deductions Just like social security. With the same employer matching contribution.
(No more bullshit of having companies not providing insurance for employees, or having to spend lunatic amounts of time and money trying to provide coverage)
2. A 10 cent per share Tax on wall street stock trades. Mark Cuban did the math here;

If the NYSE, Nasdaq, Amex and OTC are trading 2 Billion shares a day, thats $ 200 Million Dollars PER DAY. If there are 260 trading days a year. Thats about 52 Billion dollars a year.

That’s real money.

No shit sherlock.

Health Coverage is a system where a third party, not you and your health care provider, have total discretion over your treatment options, providers, and can even deny coverage and payment using rescission.

Paying for It.
Health Coverage bullshit from Blue Cross:

“To assure truly meaningful reform, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) and the 39 member Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies today announced support for every individual being required to have coverage and all insurers being required to accept everyone regardless of their health status.

“Coupling a requirement that insurers must offer coverage to everyone regardless of health status with an effective requirement that everyone have insurance would enable insurers to offer coverage to everyone regardless of their health status — without the unintended consequence of premium increases. With everyone covered through an effective individual mandate, insurance can function as intended and spread the risk over a broad and representative population and, thereby avoid the risk of only those who need insurance purchasing coverage.

The problem with this noble goal is that it will not work. Not because the pool of people would not be large enough to make it work but because the Insurance Industry will bleed you to death with exclusions, and bullshit. Let me demonstrate my theory.

Look no farther than No Fault Auto Insurance in states that require it. No Fault Insurance was designed to require coverage for all cars and drivers, with the goal of repairing cars in accidents  regardless of fault. On the back of the envelope, you would think that roughly doubling the number of policy holders making premium payments would reduce the premium cost to everyone, reduce overhead and processing costs for claims, and be a net value for both the policy holders and the insurance companies.

The reality is that payments went up, coverage went down, and the insurance companies were able to further shear policy holders with things like Uninsured Coverage, and Underinsured coverage, which you would think Uninsured would cover Underinsured, but you would be wrong.

If you think that Insurance Company Universal Health Coverage will work, I have vast tracts of oceanfront property in Arizona next to the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant to sell you.

3 comments to Health Care or Health Coverage

  • Good post, but I’m expecting to be shafted by the incoming administration when it comes to health care. After all, the government only has money for big corporations.

  • Simplicitiy is Bliss

    @Shelley: hold out hope. We can always kick his butt out if he doesn’t make good.
    Personally, I hope we get health care. I have a med I need to function properly, and with this, I’ll always be able to get it. :)

  • Shelley,

    Despite the rhetoric of the new administration, they will shaft us as they are still talking ‘coverage’ rather than care.
    As you point out they are inheriting the bailout policies that continue business as usual, as though a pot of money will actually work as a clue stick.

    It will be interesting to see how well the pocket clinics inside of drug stores are working. Which would be a much better model and use of infrastructure money.