Insurance companies don't actually do anything. They don't make anything, they don't produce anything, they don't contribute anything. They take your money and they decide how they will redistribute it within a medical community that has given all decision making to the insurance industry. For this worthless service they take 30% off the top.
The insurance industry has convinced everyone that we can't live without them. Bought and paid for politicians wring their hands and decry the failure of everyone to give their money to the insurance industry. Screaming voices wail about how how a loss of job, a change of job, or a move across state lines will destroy families, bankrupt businesses, and eliminate the American we think we know.
When did this country become totally dependent on insurance?
When did paying for drugs that are marketed like Burger King Whoppers, developed by pharma to find and fill imaginary medical demands at extraordinary cost, become the driving force in staying healthy?
When did we become so dependent on the social and psychological support of doctors and pharmacists that we decided that not paying $1,200 each month to Blue Cross or Cigna, on the off chance that we might have a catastrophic accident or major illness, become good economic and societal sense?
When did we loose all ability to rationally estimate the odds, calculate the percentages, and make informed decisions about managing our own health? Why is this argument even taking place?
We could end the whole sham by one concerted, organized, uprising against the system.
First, two caveats. I just notified Medicare that I would no longer pay for prescription drug insurance. I use no drugs. I have laid out $6,000 to Big Insurance during the past 9 years for a service that I do not use, and will never use! I am neither afraid to die, nor convinced that medication will make me immortal. I won't play that game.
Secondly, my husband is currently recovering from a massive heart attack and stroke that required surgical intervention. He and I discussed the advisability of undergoing that procedure, the cost of which has not yet topped out, but is currently running at over $300,000. He made the decision to proceed with the surgery because his group insurance would cover everything and, he had paid, out of pocket, over $300,000 during the past 20 years.
My real question is why we assume that Big Insurance, having taken control of the health industry while contributing nothing to health care, should be allowed to drive us to panic if we don't have insurance, and convince us to demand that we do have insurance?
What would be the ultimate result of our refusing to play their game? Would the world end? Would doctors refuse to treat a sick child?
If we want a public option why not just create one on our own?
I know the stories that are trotted out to frighten us, the women who die because they had acne, and the transplants that are not provided because insurance is not available. I know how much, and for how long everyone has been conditioned to think that without insurance they are personal failures, unAmerican, and wastrels. But is that really true?
What if you canceled your insurance? Then you got really sick. Not the kind of sick that would allow you to go to the doctor and pay him, or her for a visit and a bottle of pills, but really sick. What would you do?
Easy. Go to the nearest hospital and be seen by a doctor. Be admitted. receive treatment. Go home. The Public Option!
Yes, yeas, yes... We have been told that emergency rooms can not handle this type of strategy. We have been sold on the notion that paying $245 for a 10 minute walk through by a "specialist" is the best health care in the world. We have been carefully convinced that without health insurance we will all die in Bedlum.
But is that true?
We always try to make the status quo "better". We always try to correct the "inequities" in the system. We always assume that we have to work within the system.
What if we began a concerted effort to just say no. No to health insurance. No to outrageous drug cocktails designed to treat imaginary illness. No to the Ponzi Scheme that takes $1,200 to $1,500 a month out of every pocket and randomly redistributes that money under some arcane formula that offers no guarantee that you will in fact receive the health care you need.
Cut insurance companies completely out of health care. NOW.