I was reading
Brother Love's Shame thread and an idea I had about two weeks ago came rushing back to me. It was a novel muse that came to me while I was sending out my $600 quarterly insurance premium for the car. My thoughts began to drift to health insurance issues at large. And it occurred to me ... the problem with our health care is insurance companies ... period.
Everywhere insurance is needed ... insurance is the problem. But here's an idea wherein that icky word, "privatization" might actually benefit us. Tell me what you think. Now, I'm no economist or business major so easy on the insults, will ya. I seem to get a lot of those when I say something stupid, which I am wont to do occassionally. I'm just throwin' this out there.
Health care has gone to hell because only the wealthy, or those lucky enough to have a full time career at a huge corporation have insurance (I know, I'm shooting a big target with a tiny arrow, but that's it in a nutshell.)
If your local hospital created a new program that allowed you to pay them a portion of the amount that you would otherwise pay into an insurance premium, and you could thumb your nose at the Blue Cross would you do it? you pick the hospital ... you pick the amount of coverage you think you need. The hospital gets the cash.
Then when catastrophic illness hits ... you're covered. The hospital already has your money, and they've been earning interest on it while they wait for you to get that tumor. And they would decide whether it was "elective" surgery or not - not some suit who couldn't make it through med school so he's exacting his revenge with his pen.
If your primary care physician got a piece of the premium pie, but you could just say no to Met Life could it work?
Then when your doctor says you need Zoloft ... you get fucking Zoloft ... because there's no insurance company horning in and re-diagnosing you to save them money.
It would take someone with more of a left-brain than I have to work out the nuts and bolts. But on its face it seems pretty obvious to me.
The health care industry hates insurance companies (except when they get sued, and then of course they could always set up the same sort of program with their law firm - pay the premium to the lawyer ahead of time.) We hate insurance companies. The world loathes insurance companies. So why do we continue to keep these leaches attached to our fleshy underbelly.
There's a finite amount of money that goes from your salary - whether it's deducted automatically or you cut a check yourself - to the insurance company your business uses. And there are only so many places that the money your premiums pay out will end up. So why not cut out the middle man? In fact, why not hang the middle man by his heels and drop him on his head from a 20 story window?
All it would take would be a few doctors willing to say, "I don't take insurance cards anymore - I take a premium." Then of course, it would take you saying, "Cool ... I'm in."
There are too many of us. We'll never see healthcare again like we did when we were kids and our moms had the same doctor her mom had. Sometimes he even came to the house. Those days are gone. Now you go into a clinic and to get seen, you first have to get through a group of people who had no business getting their diploma, polishing their nails, or talking to their girlfriend on the phone while you bleed. God forbid you should have to ask them why that prescrption still hasn't been called in 5 days later. But somewhere in the back is a physician who still believes in the oath, and still wants to heal.
It will never be the same as it was. I can accept that. But wouldn't a major shift in how we look at healthcare and how we pay for it, help us to trim a few pounds of fat from one of the most gluttonous and ineffective relationships two business, health and insurance, ever had?
It's just an idea. I felt like being out of the box a bit today.