I’VE SOLVED THE HEALTHCARE CRISIS!
Published By: All Right Magazine on December 21, 2009
Image by DALE
By MELISSA WHITTINGTON
I just had an epiphany. I KNOW HOW TO FIX HEALTHCARE! Every doctor in America today needs to stop accepting insurance payments and instead, force patients to get reimbursed through their insurance companies. THAT WOULD SOLVE ALL OF THE PROBLEMS THAT WE HAVE IN OUR HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM TODAY. And we wouldn’t have to change a thing.
The real way to fix the problems of cost in our healthcare delivery (because that’s EXACTLY where the problem lies) is to completely eliminate insurance altogether. But that won’t happen. At least not right now. The idea is too radical, and too complicated for most people to accept. And the reason they can’t accept it is part of the problem: They have stopped looking at insurance for exactly what it is, A MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNT.
I wrote about this back in early September. The only difference between your piggy bank and “insurance” is that the folks everyone loves to hate, those “insurance executives,” are WAY smarter than you. So when you deposit your money with them, in the form of premiums, they invest it so that it GROWS, thereby creating a bigger pot of money for you to draw from when you go to the doctor.
But instead of recognizing insurance for what it is, most folks choose to see it as making a monthly payment, and in return they get unlimited access to the best healthcare system in the world. To these fools, it’s simply a monthly fee to belong to a special club, a club that can be quite handy. But this mentality is what leads to higher costs. Since you’ve paid your “monthly fee” you feel like you are ENTITLED to go to the doctor or the hospital whenever you feel like it, so you end up going when you have a stubbed toe, or your mother over-reacts after you fall off your bike. Or maybe you ate too much, you feel like crap and you want someone to make it better. I mean, COME ON. How did cavemen MAKE IT? Eat well, get off your couch, and you’ll feel a LOT better in a hurry.
What’s even WORSE? When your BOSS PAYS YOUR MONTHLY CLUB FEE. Because then it all just seems like one big medical candy store! And you know who are the WORST violators of this practice? THE UNIONS.
The Unions negotiate these ridiculous healthcare policies, which I admit are great to have if you ever do get tragically, seriously ill. But these benefits are SO “great” that these folks don’t pay their own premiums, they don’t have co-pays for doctor visits, and they pay VERY LITTLE “co-insurance” (that portion of large expenses that you are responsible for). So ultimately these people are CLUELESS about how much services costs, they over use them, and perpetuate this “entitlement” attitude that makes the problem exponentially WORSE.
Another problem with getting rid of insurance is that Americans are just stupid. YES. I SAID IT. WE’RE STUPID. We’re bossy, demanding, greedy, AND STUPID. Americans are notorious for not saving, and not planning for the future. We’re the culture of NOW, IMMEDIATE, INSTANTANEOUS! And we get angry when we don’t get our way. This results in things like the lowest percentage of wealth saved (versus spent on new 7 Jeans & Fendi purses), highest amount of per capita debt in the industrialize world……and McDONALD’S! You’re getting the picture.
We don’t save. We spend. And we don’t take very good care of ourselves. Most folks, if they didn’t have insurance to pay for, would not save that monthly club fee (insurance premiums) for that rainy day when we’re feeling under the weather. We’d jus spend it, then get sick and be screwed. Which is EXACTLY why young folks are the largest group of uninsured in the U.S. They’re healthy, so they don’t even THINK about health”care”, and they’re strapped for cash. They’d rather spend their discretionary income on BEER. And be assured that the majority DO have discretionary income. But they CHOOSE not to spend it on insurance that they clearly do not need. Fine with me. Just don’t ask me to pay for your CHOICES if you do happen to get sick. ‘kay?
Anyhow, back to my theory. So if we understand that we need to keep the insurance industry for the benefits it provides us (after all they are smarter than us) then we’re back to doctors refusing to “accept insurance.”
If I went to the doctor and he said, “Melissa, I really like you, but I don’t accept insurance.” Wow. Crap. Now what? Well, my insurance shouldn’t be tied to my doctor ANYWAY. Why would I want my doctor working for my INSURANCE COMPANY? I want my doctor working for ME. So I say, “Okay,” and then logically follow with “HOW MUCH IS THIS GOING TO COST?”
When was the last time you asked your doctor that? I’m guessing never. But if you’re like me, and you HAVE asked that question, you’re more than a little irritated when he looks at you blankly and says “…Um…..I have absolutely no idea.”
HUH? How can you possibly not know how much these services that you are offering me cost? It’s true, though. They don’t have a clue. But if we had to start taking our checkbooks with us to the doctor they’d create a menu pretty quickly, don’t you think?
And if you had a menu of services, and the doctor started doing the ordering for you, and you started tallying these things in your head, maybe you’d start asking OTHER questions. You know, ones like “Well, what is that test/procedure/drug going to DO for me?” or maybe “How well does it work?” or even “Is there something better/cheaper/easier that does the same thing?”
It might be a little irritating at first, but when doctors lose irritated patients because their prices are too high, or they’re prescribing drugs that are useless because they’re getting kickbacks from the distributors, or maybe because patients are paying money and getting ZERO RESULTS. Doctors will change THEIR delivery systems. Which, we all have to admit, is FAR from perfect right now.
Now, we’ve killed two birds with one stone: 1) doctors are working for patients, & 2) offices are now competing for your business. And it MIGHT…JUST MIGHT…force folks to think about other decisions in their life, and how those decisions would affect their health, DUE TO THE FACT THAT THEY WOULD NOW BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN HEALTHCARE CHOICES.
And the best part? When you start having to deal with your insurance company to get reimbursements from them for your costs, insurance companies would have to change THEIR delivery methods. They could no longer lobby doctors as a one stop access to hundreds of patients. They’d actually have to deal with the folks affected: YOU & ME. They’d also have to change their ridiculously complicated documentation & claims procedures. They’d have to make it work for US. And if they didn’t? Well, I can guarantee that someone WOULD. We call that COMPETITION. Because if what these Dems are saying is true, that the insurance business is a WINDFALL, why WOULDN’T someone come in and make it easier so that everyone wanted to bring their business over to better, easier, USER FRIENDLY system? And if you figured out that your insurance company was taking your money but secretly trying to kill you (another ridiculous claim of Libs), you could find one that wasn’t. THAT is real insurance reform. Simple enough, eh?
This isn’t a novel idea. It’s the base of conservative thinking: personal responsibility & free market. I think I’m the smartest girl in the world. And I didn’t need 2074 pages to do it. Only 18 paragraphs…and a LOT OF CAPS LOCK.
MELISSA WHITTINGTON is a conservative political activist trapped in the body of a civil engineer in the desert of Phoenix, Arizona. See more at http://www.RightlyConservative.com.
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December 21st, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Aside from being the smartest girl in the world, you also have some rather novel ideas. Not sure I’d like it, but it will probably come to that anyway once the system those people with their heads in the sand (or is it somewhere else) pass this legislation and it all takes a dive and fails. Save your band aids and aspirin, I mean stockpile it, you are going to need it.