I can't even get health insurance for me. Before Obamacare, I was uninsurable because I have pre existing diabetes. Now, the health insurance companies have to insure me against their will....so they quote me outrageously so that I'll decline. Health care needs to be fixed and Obamacare is not the final answer..., but it is a start. A healthy, educated citizenry is as important to America as national defense...yet both health and education are given national short shrift. National health care, in some form, is a necessity. Screw the insurance companies.
I would be uninsurable, too, except that I spent many years, standing the mid watch (0000-0400) on the deck of little grey ships in the big blue ocean. Remember, insurance is to spread the risk among many of an unexpected catastrophic event. If one has diabetes, like me, or a bad heart, or cancer or anything that you KNOW is gonna be expensive, paying for known or anticipated expenses is really not the role of insurance. I know that will pizz a lot of folks off, but if you can expect to pay money on a medical condition, so does the insurance company, and they have to factor in both the "PROFIT" and overhead, expenses that you don't have. It sucks, but insurance is there for a defined purpose. An EZ Payment plan, it ain't.
It's defined purpose is to make a profit for the insurer. Nothing wrong with that, all businesses must make a profit. And, as long as the actuarial numbers are reliable, insurers can make a profit and still insure people. Independents like Steve are a untenable risk for insurers because actuarial numbers are useless with a sample size of one. But group insurance, gives the insurers a large body of people and they can accurately predict their costs and offer affordable group rates. What the Heath Law promised, and has not yet been properly implemented, is to allow individuals like Steve to be grouped with thousands of others. Then the insurers can set rates that will allow them to make a profit and still cover costs. Pet insurance is high because they can't get group rates either.
Well, Red, maybe the 800+ page book, on Theory of Insurance was wrong, but it was pretty clear that insurance is to spread the risk of an unexpected, catastrophic cross, amongst a bunch of people. For someone with diabetes, there is no need for actuary, there is a 100% certainthy of costs. 100%. In fact at the next level up, called reinsurance, many reinsurers will take a self funded GROUP, but "laser" out someone with known risks. Finally Mutual insurance companies are in fact, not sort up to make a profit. They are there to give members a source of insurance at the least possible price. To accept and write a policy for someone or some dog with pre existing condition, the insurance company will spread the anticipated cost to all members of the group. Ker Ching!
So the value of my life and health are reduced to how much I contribute to the profit and loss statement of some insurance company...and not my value to my family or to our society. That is a culture of death. How ironic it is that they're called "Life" and "Health" insurance companies. That's like calling Auschwitz a "Sanatorium" !!
First of all I am not the bad guy here. I hated the niche of insurance I was in. Quit and went to teach 8th graders math. Took a $120k salary cut. I just hated it and the people outside my immediate group I worked with. I am simply stating how insurance works. Your life is valued greatly, but not by insurance company. To them you are x amount of risk, translated to dollars. They sum the risk, add on about 15%, divide by the number in the group, and there is your premium. The guys I worked with would not even take a group whose average age was above 35....regardless of experience of claims. Like I say, I am not the bad guy, just someone that knows how it works. I, too, have diabetes.
Oh, even more bizarre are the competing "bets" on how long you will live. Insurance companies bet you will live longer. Annuities bet you will shorter. Fortunes were made on arbitrage between the two actuarial tables. Oh yeah, believe it or not, some went to prison when they got greedy in this arena.
Dude, why say screw the insurance companies? They are for profit companies. If a meal costs you $8 to prepare but I only have $6, should you be forced to give it to me for $6? After all, I need that meal to be healthy
Exactly my point. For profit health care insurance doesn't work because it denies people access to it. Something is morally wrong with private health insurance when profit is the determining factor for life and death. What beef did Christ have with the money changers in the temple? Were they just free enterprise entrepreneurs? Or were they profiteering excessively on what people who needed what was required for their spiritual life? I agree that Obamacare is a bad bill.....way too much political pork in it. Maybe the government needs to insure things that the vast majority of our citizens get....things like heart disease, diabetes, hypertension related things, certain common cancers, etc. Maybe instead of insurance, the government needs to provide treatment for the unprofitable diseases. Let the insurance companies fight each over coverage for rare diseases that only few people get....you know, things that they can actually make money on. Right now though, the system is broken...and needs to be fixed. The government was founded on the inalienable right to life as well as liberty and the pursuit of happiness. (For humans moreso than pets )
