Health Care and Personal Responsibility

How many drug commercials or doctor’s recommendations always preface their claims with...”along with proper diet and exercise...”?

Barring those of us with serious pre-existing or congenital issues, health care is more about personal responsibility than it is about insurance coverage.

Insurance is based on risk, and your personal health is based on the risks you take....whether it is your driving habits or how many times you hit the drive thru.

 

Likewise, health care is all a part of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

Sometimes that juicy burger and fries just tastes so good, or that beer is so refreshing, or that chocolate ice cream cone in summer hits the spot. These are the salty and sweet joys of life that we all deserve to indulge.

It’s only when the price of over-indulgence affects our health and ultimately our insurance costs.....everyone’s insurance costs....does the perspective change.

I have no problem with people who choose to eat or take care of themselves the way they do, as long as the price of their risks are duly paid by them to their insurance provider.

 

It is along the same lines as why I really don’t wish to pay for the insurance risk of those whose personal choice it is to continue living in the path of hurricanes.

 

The problem with insurance costs might be that there are not large enough pools to cover all the different risk levels, so to keep costs down across the board...the number of pools gets limited. This is the proprietary trade of the insurance industry, and frankly the federal government has no business trying to regulate that cost.

Markets regulate cost. Markets determine winners and losers in business. The size of the insurance pool and the costs that they bear are better determined by market pressures. The more industry players, the larger the pools that can be covered at the lowest average cost.

 

The purpose of health insurance is about doctors and patients and distributing the risks in treating illness.

 

Lawyers have no place in this equation, and have co-opted the entire relationship with the pure goal of making money off the situation. Lawyers have done nothing to further progress in health care, only to line their pockets. Lawyers are the basis for the explosion in patient testing, rising malpractice insurance, and those costs being passed on to the patient.

No one should be denied health insurance coverage. The costs of high-risk patients with pre-existing conditions needs to be addressed with special market pools run by the insurance industry and not the government. The government can legislate the requirement for such a pool, but not get involved in the operation or cost structuring.

For those without insurance, who just wish to show up at emergency rooms for treatment and walk away from the bill....we take cash, credit or debit card. This is a business, and not a Peace Corps operation.