Insurance

Health insurance is a big deal. The costs to cover an individual, or family, have been on the rise for a while, now. Malpractice insurance, for the health care workers, is also rising. Some advocate universal health care; others reflexively oppose anything they see as "socialist". It's a tangled mess.

There are ideas that medical insurance should be mandatory, like auto insurance. This is, by far, the stupidest possible outcome, in my opinion. Look at what happened when auto-insurance was mandated:

Politicians mandated a minimum amount- which changes state to state- based on what the average poorest people with cars could afford. They passed legislation, backed by the insurance companies, and rates went up. Rates went up because the insurance companies said demand went up. Demand went up because tickets were being given out. Tickets were being given out because politicians passed legislation, backed by the insurance companies. And the minimum amount of insurance cost those poorest people more than what was accounted for by the politicians.

Who cares? Poor people don't vote. They're stupid, and lazy, and poor. Fuck them!

The insurance companies- people who only care about profit- dictate to hospitals and doctors what procedures can be done, what testing can be done, and generally how to give those patients care. Read that again. The people whom only care about making money are the same people who decide how patients are treated. Conflict of interests? I'd say so; add to it that insurance companies continue to make money hand over fist. Though I'm not against companies making money, I do become concerned when it's at the expense of their customers.

Recently, a source involved with the administration of a local hospital told me that insurers would no longer cover ANY aspect of a hospital stay if the patient were injured. That means, if a patient gets out of bed, trips, falls, and breaks their leg- the insurance company won't cover the emergency appendectomy that was the cause for hospitalization. This is on top of their current Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to not cover any aspect of care required because of the injury. This means more costs to hospitals, and less funds to hire more nurses and other staff.

The American Journal of Nursing recently reported that insurance companies were going to stop coverage of hospital acquired infections in September of 2008. The number of infections not covered is due to increase in March of 2009. My source qualified the effect insurance companies already have over hospitals: "They get us coming and going."

Insurance companies dictate how many tests a doctor can run on a patient; and what kind of tests those can be. Instead of using the latest, most accurate, and- often- most expensive tests; the doctor is forced to use an older version that may be less reliable and is, definitely, cheaper. Of course, the doctor could always do a different version of the test, one not covered by the insurer, and pass the cost onto the patient- who probably already pays considerable amounts to be insured. However, this isn't a satisfactory solution, for many reasons.

One of the most common reasons for bankruptcy is debt from bills associated with health care. Adding more debt onto someone who, if the condition is serious- or debilitating- enough, is already missing work, is not going to help that person's recovery. Many studies have shown that stress can slow recovery in otherwise healthy patients. Additionally, doctors and patients often don't know how much a procedure, or test, will actually cost.

It does seem unfair that our government pays hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to fight a hugely unpopular war, while refusing to give basic preventative health care to its own citizens. Mandating coverage isn't going to fix the problem of rising health care costs. Mandating insurance, as it has in the past, only puts more power in the hands of Insurance Companies. Whatever the solution may be, it's not requiring health insurance.