by Thomas Sowell
No "Health Insurance"?
September 03, 2007 02:00 PM EST
During the first 30 years of my life, I had no health insurance. Neither did a lot of other people, back in those days.
During those 30 years, I had a broken arm, a broken jaw, a badly injured shoulder, and miscellaneous other medical problems. To say that my income was below average during those years would be a euphemism.
How did I manage? The same way everybody else managed: I went to doctors and I paid them directly, instead of paying indirectly through taxes.
This was all before politicians gave us the idea that the things we could not afford individually we could somehow afford collectively through the magic of government.
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Conservative Bloggers Comments:
This is one where I think we have some problems that need to be addressed. The free market economy is not working for our health care system. Sure the author got treated and paid the doctor directly, but now days you simply can't afford what they charge. I was looking at one of my insurance statements and saw the following. The service provided (in this case a routine office visit) was billed at approximately $125. The insurance company paid just over $38 for the visit and the rest the doctor wrote off for the privilege of having the insurers patients. Had I walked into the office I would have paid the full $125 for the visit. It's the same with drugs and hospitals. The average citizen simply cannot afford to pay the normal rate. More and more companies are providing either less care or no insurance at all for employees. There are many more "consultant" positions being created which allow companies to provide less benefits to workers which I understand helps the bottom line. The amount of people in the US with no health care is going to grow. While I hope the government does not step in to provide it in the form of a national system, I think there are definitely steps that can be taken to make it more accessible and affordable to most Americans.
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2 comments:
Consider this. You have been paying out of pocket for doctors visits. You get in a car accident, need emergency care and surgery. Without insurance, you have just gone bankrupt! We pay about $800 month for insurance because he are too fearful to go without. Something has to change!
I couldn't agree more. While I don't think socialized medicine is the answer (lets use British teeth for an example of how well that works). The drug compnies and insurance companies are fleecing both the government and the American people and it needs to stop. Doctors are a distant third in the fleecing department. Any additional thoughts?
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