Point taken. I have no problem with people insuring themselves against catastrophic health problems. That wouldn't cost that much for the average young person. But that is not what health insurance has become. We are insuring that we can go to the doctor if we catch the flu or a simple cold.
Note that we insure our houses against catastrophic loss but not against minor problems. We should treat health the same way. Insure against an uncommon but tragic health problem and pay as you go for the day to day stuff. This would cut out the middleman to a large extent and greatly reduce the financial burden on our real health organizations, the ones with doctors and nurses.
We are insuring that we can go to the doctor if we catch the flu or a simple cold.That's true, we need more incentives for people to use health care wisely. My mom is one of those who waits until after hours before she decides to deal with problems at the ER. She gets sick and dehydrates easily, a serious health risk for the elderly. She would get a lot better and less expensive care if she would just go to her doctor earlier. But she's 82 and no amount of reasoning will get her to do it differently. Now that we have her here in town we can keep a better eye on her. Raising parents is tough. lol
The other side of the coin is that the many uninsured will wait way to long to see a doctor. It concerns me that having all these uninsured people are a biological terrorism risk for all of us. Something like enhanced smallpox could go undetected for some time with the uninsured incubating it and eventually spreading it to others. It's something that needs to be thought about while we look at the whole health care problem. 9-11 was a failure of imagination if anything.
This is one of those problems that don't have an easy solution. Healthcare is already rationed in this country via pharmacy formularies and managed care. It's insurance company bureaucrats vs government bureaucrats. Both systems have their problems. I wish I knew the answer but I'm pretty sure the current system isn't it.