Free Insurance for Everyone
September 26th, 2007The idea of free insurance for everyone seems a little far-fetched in today’s world.? Some countries offer their citizens government-backed insurance, other countries like the United States let their citizens fend for themselves.? Wait, that isn’t totally correct.? The U.S. does offer Medicaid and Medicare.? Then there is the State Childrens’ Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP).? That particular program has actually been in the news alot lately.
So what would it take to get free insurance for everyone?? A miracle you say?? I would agree.? I was self-employed for the last two years and was covering health and dental insurance needs for myself, my wife, and our three children.? What do you suppose that cost us per month?? Go on take a guess.? It started at about $600 per month the first year and increased every time the contract came up for renewal.? I am no longer self employed, but before I left for my new job my family’s insurance was up to $900 per month.? How crazy is that?!? That would buy a nice house, a sweet car, three nice motorcycles, all kinds of food, etc.? To top it off, there were still out of pocket costs and a deductible to meet.? What’s wrong with that? picture?? Everything!
So who has a good idea for the people out there who have families like my own, but they don’t have $900/month for insurance?? The only one I can think of is to round up some doctors, dentists, and hospitals that are willing to work for a decent wage.? Then we won’t need the insurance companies hovering over our lives siphoning off money from our pockets.? Thoughts?
What we need to do is take away health care control from our employers. Most that offer health insurance will pay for it if you go with their provider (most of the time a single provider with a few options) and if you choose to opt out you do not get that money reimbursed. We recently added health care to our entry-level position - sounds great! They pay $400 for your personal plan a month. Downside is we’ve got an 18 year old single mother covered under her parents plan and two retired military guys who use the gov for health care. What does it amount to? Of the 10 people on our team 7 of them got a $400 a month pay increase whereas the other 3 got nothing.
Adding to that, I shopped around and am able to pay half as much ($200 of the $400 my employer is paying) a month for insurance through a different company. Because my employer covers me, I’d have to pay $200 to go to that company. In a perfect world all 10 of us would receive a $400 a month pay increase and then I could choose to go with the cheaper play from a different provider and use the $200 as I wish.
If all employers handled it that way it would increase competition between providers and we’d end up with a better end of the deal. Why be stuck with provider when their poor service and unwillingness to extend preventative coverage means you take your business elsewhere. Nobody can if they’re stuck with the company provider so there’s little incentive for them to improve - it takes a miracle before you can get the person in charge of a company plan to consider changing based on service. I’m think I may be alright with employers doing reimbursement for health care costs but giving you the choice, but as it stands very few even do this.
That’s the key, really. Put health insurance choice and control back into your hands…and by all means, don’t change corporate masters for government masters.