Like I just said on another thread...
We should go back to coverage limits. The insurance I had until 2013 had a lifetime benefit limit of $100,000. 20% copay and $500 deductible. My premium was $34. Generic drugs $10. I’ve never wanted expensive life-prolonging procedures or drugs anyway and certainly no transplants. The consumer should be able to make this choice.
The issue with your suggestion is that you end up with people who have some unique health deal and by the time you add up the procedure, the rehab, and the drugs....they’ve spent $100,000 over a four-year period, and they might still be 30 years old.
Over the past forty years, they’ve added procedure after procedure and extended life another ten to twenty years. People have chances now. But all of this relates to some cost and we aren’t talking about $20,000 for the procedure and the drugs anymore.
There’s a test out there for hip-replacement candidates to determine if they are allergic to the material being used. The test, at least in 2012, was running $10,000. Typically, very few insurance companies will cover this test. The doctors will be all positive that 99-percent of their folks don’t have such an allergy. But if you come out of the hospital, and keep having massive inflammation around the hip....it takes about a month for the doctor to admit that you’ve got an allergy and they might have to go for round two of the surgery.
That might