🚀 go-pugleaf

Al Date wrote:
AD>Just because you are uninsured does not mean that you cannot afford
AD>medical care!  The vast majority of uninsured Americans are employed.

AD>I have several self-employed friends who make much more than I do,
AD>who just take their chances, and if they get hurt or sick they just
AD>run it up on their VISA at the local clinic.  They tell me that it
AD>is MUCH cheaper than buying insurance.  It's kind of funny, in
AD>a sick way, because here they are, cutting the cost of medical service
AD>to themselves and, by extension, to the populace as a whole,
AD>by cutting out the middleman and self-insuring, and some
AD>intervention-minded Santa Claus-believing statistics-bending
AD>policy wonk finds out about them by looking at the data, and
AD>he comes to the conclusion that the system is so messed
AD>up that we need a Health Czar to straighten it all out!


Like your friends, we were young and healthy, and self-employed.  Our
daughter was born 12 weeks early.  The prognosois was good, and she's
healthy and bright today, but her medical bills were over $300k. That
was 11 years ago. I can't guess what it would cost today. We were
thankful to have insurance coverage. Even the 20% deductible just about
killed us.

Had we been self-insured, we would not have been able to pay these
bills.  The costs would have been absorbed by by the taxpayers, and
by insured patients.  To be *self-insured* is to be dependent on public
funds in the event of catastrophic illness--unless one has very deep
pockets.  I think your friends would max out their VISA cards fast if
they were unlucky enough to become seriously ill.  Cancer happens.  AIDS
happens.  And so do a number of less fatal, but still expensive medical
problems.

Our professional group insurance rates went up astronomically the year
following my daughter's birth (guess why?).  The increase in insurance
cost was a major factor shutting down our small business.

Our current coverage is an HMO.  We don't have a meaningful choice
about who our doctors are.  We don't have a "relationship" with a
doctor. We do get acceptable care and a reasonable level of service.  I
don't think we have much to loose if Prop 186 passes, except the fear of
losing coverage.

My point is that your affluent friends may be saving themselves some
money, but we--the taxpayers and insured--are assuming their risk, and
it's costing us money.