WELCOME TO TOM'S BLOG

Thank you for stopping by for a visit. You are invited to read and comment on anything posted on this blog. I advocate the maximum amount of Personal and Economic Liberty, consistent with the defense of individual rights. I am fiscally conservative yet socially tolerant, I favor lower taxes, free trade, individual rights, strong national defense and limited government. I subscribe to the Freedom Fighters Creed: I am an American Patriot, defender of the Constitution, First Principles and Essential Liberty.

I believe that buried deep down inside every Conservative you'll find a Libertarian - And Inside Every Liberal Is A Totalitarian Screaming To Get Out.

"One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors" - Plato

FYI any crude or vulgar comments will be removed from the blog.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Risky Business


Insurance is all about risk. Yet neither insurance companies nor their policy-holders can do anything about one of the biggest risks -- namely, interference by politicians, to turn insurance into something other than a device to deal with risk.
By passing laws to force insurance companies to cover things that have nothing to do with risk, politicians force up the cost of insurance.
Annual checkups, for example, are known in advance to take place once a year. Foreseeable events are not a risk. Annual checkups are no cheaper when they are covered by an insurance policy. On the contrary, they are one of many things that are more expensive when they are covered by an insurance policy.
All the paperwork, record-keeping and other things that go with having any medical procedure covered by insurance have to be paid for, in addition to the cost of the medical procedure itself.
If automobile insurance covered the cost of oil changes or the purchase of gasoline, then both oil changes and gasoline would have to cost more, to cover the additional bureaucratic work involved.
In the case of health insurance, however, politicians love to mandate things that insurance must cover, including in some states treatment for baldness, contraceptives and whatever else politicians can think of. Playing Santa Claus costs a politician nothing, but it can cost the policy-holder a bundle -- all of which the politician will blame on the "greed" of the insurance company.
Insurance companies are regulated by both states and the federal government. This means that, instead of there being one vast nationwide market, where innumerable insurance companies compete with each other from coast to coast, there are 50 fragmented markets with different rules. That adds to the costs and reduces the competition in a given state.
When there are innumerable insurance companies, it is by no means clear that political regulation of them will produce better results than the regulation provided by competition in the market. In a competitive market, insurance companies would cover only those things that their policy-holders are willing to pay to have covered. Policy-holders would have no reason to pay to have insurance cover things that would be cheaper if paid for directly -- or not paid for at all, in the case of things that are not a real concern to many people, such as baldness cures. CONTINUE READING

3 comments:

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ShaamAnsu said...

I agree with you on most things. The few questions I have, perhaps we could continue to discuss these.

You are correct with your statements about regular annual physicals costing more if they are covered by insurance. This is true of any charge for anything considered 'medical'.
Between attending college, getting married, having 2 children, I worked as nurse/receptionist in a medical office when Medicare came into being in 1965-66. There were many seminars to attend to get to the nitty-gritty of pages and pages of long-winded words that amounted to a hill-of-beans. My heart went out to our patients of the age to sign up for Medicare. I held 'classes' in the office once a week or so, to help eligible patients and their families understand this new program. Many eligible patients would break down and cry. At that time, Medicare was totally confusing and required patients/families to be 'hands-on' in dealing with something that was truly confusing. Medicare got off to a really rough start.

It amazes me, through my own studies, that the general population, not eligible for Medicare, believe that the Government pays for Medicare, when in actuality all consumers receiving Medicare pay monthly $99+ which comes off the gross SS amount. Medicare is Mandatory, and is not Free. Medicare Prescription D plans are also Mandatory and carry a penalty if a person does not sign up for it as soon as they are eligible. This plan can be taken off the gross SS amount and can either come out of your checking account every month, or it can be paid by monthly vouchers. This amount is $40 on the average per month.

If Congress,in all it's splendid glory, decides to give SS recipients an 'across-the-board/cost of living raise each year, recipients might see a meager increase of just a few dollars a month, (and I Do Mean Meager), with the bulk of the sorry raise being gobbled up by the Medicare Monster with increases in both Medicare and it's Prescription D plan, as well as increases in supplemental insurance plans.These increases create a domino effect, or (you-know-what-runs-downhill-and guess-who-is-at-the-bottom-of-the-pile)
Frankly, I don't think anyone in Congress has any right to decide a general health plan for the country and definitely should not be deciding what Medicare recipients should or should not receive, and the prescription-D plan needs work. No one in Congress (House and Senate) has the insurance plans of the masses. Their govt insurance covers them throughout their lives, and is quite different than the plans being forced on the general population.
I'm rambling I know, but I really get incensed with: 1) Being Controlled, and 2) feeling as if retirees are no longer useful and have been shoved to the side of the road. I am comforted with the knowledge that, at some point in time, the same persons trying to demean us now will become retirees themselves one day.

Well, that's my ramble today folks!

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