Thank Goodness for Health Insurance!
I hear people say that now and then. But in some senses, it doesn’t make sense…
* It’s not like it was given to you. Even if your employer (is forced to) gives it to you, it’s all part of the package. It’s not just them being nice – either it’s by force or it’s to attract better talent. It’s not a gift.
* You paid for it. If you pay for it yourself, thank yourself! Again, the insurance company isn’t a) being nice or b) losing money. Overall, the premiums paid TO the insurance company are much less than what is paid FROM the insurance company. The hope is that a) overall you’ll pay less than you get (I’d hate to know why you have so many bills) or b) when you get a big bill, you won’t have the cash so you have insurance.
I pay over $1000/month for our families insurance. I haven’t been to the doctor in a LONG time (years). My wife and kids are similar – we rarely need to go (thank GOD).
A few years ago, we had a big need and one of my sons had surgery (big bill). I had melanoma cancer surgery (big bill), etc. A few times we get very big bills.
But I feel like I pay $1000+/month and every few years we get a bill that’s like $5000. Unless you’re really bad at math, I’m getting robbed. Not only that, but we have HIGH deductibles!
Penalized for being healthy.
It’s like giving a bully $5 and then thanking him for floating you a $1 loan.
I’d say I’m a fool for the insurance I have, but they’re all bad like that.
Certainly, there’s cases where people don’t pay much and get it thru their employer and get a HUGE bill they only have to pay a small part of, but again, it’s not the insurance company taking a loss. They just take it out of the premiums of the rest of the people. Also, until you have another big bill like that, you’ll be paying them back.
It’s all a big racket anyway, doctors charge fees based on insurance companies allowances and order procedures and more based on all of that. And if you don’t follow the doctor’s orders, you have to sign a waiver saying you’re doing your own thing and the insurance company isn’t responsible to pay. This actually happened to us…
My son was running a fever one night and we took him to the emergency room. They admitted him and ran some tests. He was fine, but they wanted the pediatrician to see him the next day. We wanted to take him home.
If we took him, we had to sign a waiver and pay a TON ourselves. We waited until the morning. The doctor came in and in 15 seconds said we could go. But now our bill included a stay in the hospital which is a ton.
Another time, I went to the doctor and the bill was surprisingly low for an office visit. I asked why. They said they were giving us the ‘uninsured price’ since we didn’t have insurance. I explained we did have insurance and the price doubled. What the???
Another friend of mine went in to a place that advertised “$99 Mammogram.” When they found out she had insurance, it was a much higher price.
Too big to fail? Too big to be forced to change.
