Insurance

Hold your horses. I am going to talk about health insurance.

However, I am going to avoid waxing too political... primarily because I am tired of the politics surrounding a financial decision. I am tired of the Democrats accusing the Republicans of being partisan and vice versa.

I think that if people understood that health insurance is a financial decision and not a decision based on “caring” or “compassion” then we would probably come to a solution to our problem.

The premise of this post is that the problem with the health care debate is the assumption that health care insurance actually costs less than just paying for the service.

So, follow me on a couple of key concepts. continue reading...

I listen to people “trying” to be persuasive all the time. In politics, the democrats and republicans try to prove that the other person is wrong using the same rhetoric. They both use the same words to define why the other is wrong in so many cases.

“He voted for this 94 times.”

“Oh yeah, well he voted for that 123 times.”

When they don’t claim victory on the same topics, they argue their point as though it is natural to assume that everyone agrees.

“You’re American so you know that I must be right!”

Liberals try to convince the world they are right by spouting liberal logic and conservatives try to convince the world the same using conservative logic.

This doesn’t work because they never try to come to a common point of interest. They don’t try to illustrate where they agree and use the logic of the person they are talking to in order to sway public opinion.

Do you see the problem yet? Do you understand yet why your argument doesn’t win hearts and minds? continue reading...

I have chronic heart burn and I have to take medication for that heart burn. The best drug that works for me is Nexium. But, I don't take that because my insurance co-pay is too expensive. If I did take that, I would only have to take one per day.

Because Nexium isn't a preferred drug on the insurance policy, I have to take two per day of Priolsec (or its generic equivalent). So, instead of 30 pills per month, I take 60 pills per month. If I miss a pill, I have a horrible few hours until the next pill kicks in.

I thought I would do a little research on what the real cost is.  

The total cost per month for my prescription is $153.99. Because I have a reasonable insurance plan, my co pay for that drug is $10.00 and the pharmacy is proud to say that I "saved" $143.99.

I decided to look at Amazon.com for comparisons. continue reading...

I am amazed at how many different opinions can come from the same set of stats. It is fascinating to me the decisions that business leaders will make based on a set of stats that are likely to be interpreted incorrectly.

I was doing a little research and ran across a post on Universal Health Care.

One of the doctors who worked on the study (obviously biased to a national health care program) commented that most doctors support national health insurance. He said:

As doctors, we find that our patients suffer because of increasing deductibles, co-payments, and restrictions on patient care. More and more, physicians are turning to national health insurance as a solution to this problem.

Basically, he is saying that patients suffer because of insurance not because of lack of insurance. Since when has the government ever provided a service that private business hasn't done better? continue reading...