Health insurance should not be designed to cover routine or trivial medical costs. Only major or catastrophic costs.
Health insurance should not be designed to cover routine or trivial medical costs. Only major or catastrophic costs.
“Health insurance should not be designed to cover routine or trivial medical costs. Only major or catastrophic costs.”
You mean it should actually be “insurance”?? Let’s not go gettin’ crazy....
>>Health insurance should not be designed to cover routine or trivial medical costs. Only major or catastrophic costs.
At $150 to see my doctor for a prescription refill for a drug I’ve been taking for 12 years, nothing is trivial.
When that same drug went from being so cheap that I didn’t even pay the full $7 co-pay to $90/month due the magic of “reformulation” nothing is trivial.
When my household income is 40% less (adjusted for CPI) than it was in 2007, nothing is trivial.
A lot of things need to change before we can start demanding that people pay thousands in deductibles.
I elect a health care option where I elect to pay 100% of everything up to a certain dollar amount ($6000 a year for my wife and I). That keeps the monthly premium pretty reasonable. I then have a tax-free payroll deduction to build up that $6,000 each year which rolls into an HSA. I try not to use it because I get to keep and invest what I don't use.
But if anything serious catastrophic happened healthwise, I'd be covered 100% (after that initial $6,000 that I already saved up.)
That's what medical insurance should be used for. Not clogging up our medical system with routine and trivial nonsense because people would rather get that big-screen TV and Playstation than to pay for a doctor visit for Sally's runny nose.
Charge full price for routine doctor visits and that nonsense stops today. The only freebie I would support would be an annual checkup because that might prevent more expensive issues down the road. Preventive care is also a big factor in keeping future costs down.
Ok .. here’s my 2 cents worth. Make the basic plan a major med plan ... $2-5K for deductible ... 80/20 co-insurance split ... maximum out of pocket .... say $5-10K.
For anything else ... riders to purchase for a 90/10 co-insurance split, lower out of pocket max, RX co-pays, preventative ... and the list goes on.
Make it a so that a person can customize their policy to match their needs and budget.
Oh ... and also sell across state lines and allow the free market to work.
One of the common arguments that reinforces your point is that auto insurance covers major damage in a crash, but doesn't cover oil changes. That's true, but if your auto insurance policy also covered a catastrophic powertrain failure, you can be damn sure your insurance company would insist on regular oil changes -- even if the pay for them and include the cost in your premiums.