Socialized Health Care in the USA

[kandrathe]

It just doesn't work the way other products do.

I'd say... For catastrophic illness, you are probably correct. But that is not what has driven up the price of health insurance.

For example (one of many), why is birth control covered by health insurance? While it does involve a doctor, it is a voluntary procedure (for now). Probably because the consequences of birth control failure, pregnancy, is also then the responsibility of the health insurer to pay. Which, if fair, would also not be the kind of "catastrophic illness" that would be normally insured against. In our society, the government insists on treating people like they are irresponsible children, so the government passes laws that say that the medical costs of both pregnancy, and preventing pregnancy will be included.

It's that having sex and getting pregnant are indeed like drinking beer in one respect. Both are governed by people's behavior, and contrary to popular belief, getting pregnant is not accidental. It takes effort ( and sometimes beer). I could make the same argument for alcoholism. You don't just fall out of bed one day and suffer a bout of alcoholism ( but it might be the wake up call).

I would say that psychiatric conditions are a special case, like other chronic conditions (such as diabetes). While perhaps the initial discovery phase maybe should be covered, the ongoing cost of health maintenance should probably be considered as a separate non-insured cost for which the consumer would be responsible.

If the cost of treating a malady is a $1 a day, then people can afford to get themselves treated, but if the cost of keeping that chronically ill person is $1 M a day, then no one can afford to keep them well. Somewhere between the $1 and the $1M is the point where any group policy will go bust.

The beer analogy breaks when the person passes out, or begins to suffer cirrhosis and dies. But, when nearly everyone in the USA is getting "free" treatment for acne, birth control, over eating, feeling sad, etc., then the costs of insurance skyrocket. The answer is to move the responsibility of the consequences of consumption closer to the source of supply. Let doctors and patients negotiate together again. What a concept! Before getting Lasik surgery, maybe you'd ask the doctor how much the procedure will cost.

There is a real world example of what would happen. Cosmetic surgery has always been exempt from the insurance model, and thus, the costs of procedures are well known and competition has driven the quality up and the prices down. So, pretty much everyone knows that if you want big breasts, it costs between $4000 and $10000.