As I sit in my humble house on this day of intense sweltering heat I ponder...
I ponder Obamacare. I have a solution to this whole issue. Instead of requiring everyone to purchase health insurance we should require everyone to carry life insurance. If you aren't sickly and don't visit the doctor often you can leave an inheritance to your children, spouse or even your favorite charity. If you are sickly and have major health issues your life insurance will cover the cost of your healthcare after you die. Yes, your family will NOT have anything after your passing, but your health care bills will be paid!
Tell me what you think...
2 comments:
Hmm- I don't get into car accidents but am required to buy car insurance- just in case I have an accident. Statistically, over a lifetime of driving, though, I'll probably have some kind of accident. But couldn't I just save the premiums instead and use the money I've saved to pay for the accident-which could have been caused by someone else? The reality is that very few of us would actually save the premiums to be used for an accident. The same can be said for health insurance. Of course, the amount of premiums that everyone pays is based on statistics regarding the odds for the particular person (sex, age, etc...) so if the number of people paying for insurance is small, then the premiums are higher.
I am saying that I am not disciplined enough to save my premiums for the time in my life I will need some kind of health care. So as someone who pays individually for my insurance, I like the idea of having a larger number of people to spread out the costs to keep my premiums lower. I also like not being turned down for a pre-existing condition, not having a life-time maximum (used to be a million dollars- which can get used up pretty fast if there is a major health issue), and not being dumped by the health insurance company should I have a major health issue, or not having my premiums jacked up exorbitantly because I am sick (and therefore have to drop coverage because I can't afford it anymore).
But if I had life insurance, then my bills would be paid for- after I die- maybe. It all depends on how my estate was set up. Now, because we were raised to be honest, we would make sure the bills were paid from the life insurance money. But sadly, that is not true for everyone. And, we may also have not bought enough life insurance to pay for all of our health bills. Which means the companies will take a loss on me and will make up that loss by passing on costs to someone else. Hmmm- this gets complex. That is why health care is what it is now (before the Affordable Healthcare Act) and has not been fixed based on open market principles (which is a myth anyway). That is why the Affordable Healthcare Act is what it is. It's not pretty, and it's not perfect, but my opinion is that it is a start. We should keep what works, and fix what may not work, not just outright get rid of it.
There us though, one thing I would like to see fixed (which has always been a problem for me even before AHA was passed)- and that is get no tax breaks for my health care (I pay taxes on the money I use for my health care premiums). Companies who provide health care get tax breaks for that- why can't I?
Would the IRS monitor that like they are going to monitor making sure we all have health insurance? Goodness knows they do one heck of a job getting our tax returns back to us on time....she says dripping with sarcasim :-P
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