Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community  

Go Back   Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community > The Academy > Tilted Knowledge and How-To


 
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 05-07-2004, 10:31 AM   #1 (permalink)
Devoted
 
Redlemon's Avatar
 
Donor
Location: New England
Health insurance rant (but not $)

Why do I need to buy dental insurance and eye insurance separately from general health insurance? My eyes and my teeth are part of my body. Sure, you might say "only some people need glasses", but I don't need knee surgery, and I'm helping to cover those payments for other people.

Anyone have a good answer for me?
Redlemon is offline  
Old 05-07-2004, 11:18 AM   #2 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: NJ
Alright this is getting surreal. I agreed with pan6467 twice this week and now I'm agreeing with redlemon. WTF is going on.

Additionally, I don't understand why lasik isn't covered as a medical expense (alright I understand why, insurance companies don't want to pay more money out to people) when it's correcting something that's physically wrong with you. If I had a hole in my heart or torn cartilege they'd pay but my misshapen cornea is somehow acceptable.
__________________
Strive to be more curious than ignorant.
onetime2 is offline  
Old 05-07-2004, 04:39 PM   #3 (permalink)
Psycho
 
iccky's Avatar
 
Location: Princeton, NJ
Especially since Lasik would save them money in the long run, not having to buy you more glasses and contacts and all.
iccky is offline  
Old 05-07-2004, 06:10 PM   #4 (permalink)
MSD
The sky calls to us ...
 
MSD's Avatar
 
Super Moderator
Location: CT
Insurance companies exist to make money, not to help you out of the goodness of their hearts. That's the point of any for-profit company
MSD is offline  
Old 05-08-2004, 05:11 AM   #5 (permalink)
I read your emails.
 
canuckguy's Avatar
 
Location: earth
insurance is the biggest scam since the pet rock. I like how my car insurance rates can increase when the value of my vehicle decreases and I have never made a claim! unreal
canuckguy is offline  
Old 05-10-2004, 12:05 PM   #6 (permalink)
Junkie
 
kutulu's Avatar
 
Quote:
Originally posted by MrSelfDestruct
Insurance companies exist to make money, not to help you out of the goodness of their hearts. That's the point of any for-profit company
A perfect example of why health care should be a non profit industry. Profits are good when they are earned by providing goods and services, not when you're just the middle-man bewteen a persons health and the person who monitors your health.
kutulu is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 01:00 AM   #7 (permalink)
Crazy
 
Location: San Diego, CA
Quote:
Originally posted by kutulu
A perfect example of why health care should be a non profit industry. Profits are good when they are earned by providing goods and services, not when you're just the middle-man bewteen a persons health and the person who monitors your health.

I disagree. A nonprofit organization has no real incentives and tends to be slow and unreliable. I want my health insurance company fighting to keep my business.

Think of this this way - why isn't there a non-profit health-insurance company? I mean, think of it - it could have the lowest prices by far, since it wasn't trying to make a profit. People would donate to it in order to write it off their taxes, and so the cost would be subsidized even more. Everyone would flock to it! So, why doesn't it exist? Because it won't work, that's why. It will be slow, ineffective, behind the times, and untrustworthy. I'll stick with my "money-grubbing" insurance companies, thanks.
__________________
"Don't believe everything you read on the internet. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose." -- Douglas Adams
Rangsk is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 06:58 AM   #8 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: Florida
Quote:
Originally posted by kutulu
A perfect example of why health care should be a non profit industry. Profits are good when they are earned by providing goods and services, not when you're just the middle-man bewteen a persons health and the person who monitors your health.
Then we can enjoy the same level of top-notch health care as our socialist and communist bretheren! And doctors will continue to flock to med school to spend 10 years of their life and over $100k to...not make any money.

I prefer the current system where people have incentive to provide good health care, thank you very much.

Would you go to work if you didn't get paid? If you did, would you put the same time and effort into making sure you did a good job?
irseg is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 09:59 AM   #9 (permalink)
Insane
 
Location: About 70 pixals above this...
The problem with health insurance is that is not insuring anything. Healthcare, basic healthcare, is something that you should always do ~every 6 months.

Basic healthcare, eg. checkups, vaccinations, and basic little things aflicting 75% of the population on a regular basis (general infections), all should be covered under the Govt. (partially socialized (i said a dirty word) healthcare) while Insurance actually does like it does in every other definition, keeps costs down when an emergency happens, such as dialysis, heart transplants, bla bla bla.

This would keep more people from not having basic health care taken care of, which is where most HUGE problems can be stopped, and allowing doctors, who under socialized healthcare get payed shit, to get full return on their emotional and financial stress (call, dealing with the lives of people, and initial med school investment).
BenChuy is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 12:15 PM   #10 (permalink)
Banned from being Banned
 
Location: Donkey
Health insurance isn't a scam as much as homeowners/car.

You could go to the docs till you're blue in the face and they won't raise the individual rates like the other two types of insurance do. Granted, you gotta pay your yearly deductible, but after that it's free game. I agree with them not covering lasik. Pure stupidity.

There are also other things you can do to take advantage of your health insurance... like the Chiropractor. Most of the time it's covered under the general co-pay. Walk in, get your back straightened out (and a free massage) to relieve that stress.. all for $10. Go once a month or something.

Homeowner's and car insurance, however, really screw you over big time and are the true scams of the insurance industry. The whole point of insurance is so that when bad shit happens, you're covered. However, say your house gets hit by lightning and causes $20k worth of damage... or you go into the grocery store and come out to find the entire front end of your car is smashed... the second you make a claim, they boost your rates. What's the f'n point then?

They REALLY need to do something about that.
__________________
I love lamp.
Stompy is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 12:18 PM   #11 (permalink)
Junkie
 
Location: Florida
I don't agree on the socialized checkups part, but I do think that health insurance shouldn't cover everyday medical stuff, or you should at least have an option to buy insurance that doesn't cover it.

Best analogy I ever heard was "imagine how much car insurance would cost if it covered oil changes and brake jobs"
irseg is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 12:29 PM   #12 (permalink)
Devoted
 
Redlemon's Avatar
 
Donor
Location: New England
Re: Health insurance rant (but not $)

Quote:
Originally posted by redlemon
Anyone have a good answer for me?
C'mon, someone here has to work in insurance. Or know someone who does. Please?
Redlemon is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 12:30 PM   #13 (permalink)
Psycho
 
Location: Memphis
Quote:
Originally posted by Rangsk
I disagree. A nonprofit organization has no real incentives and tends to be slow and unreliable. I want my health insurance company fighting to keep my business.

Think of this this way - why isn't there a non-profit health-insurance company? I mean, think of it - it could have the lowest prices by far, since it wasn't trying to make a profit. People would donate to it in order to write it off their taxes, and so the cost would be subsidized even more. Everyone would flock to it! So, why doesn't it exist? Because it won't work, that's why. It will be slow, ineffective, behind the times, and untrustworthy. I'll stick with my "money-grubbing" insurance companies, thanks.
Actually, there is. I'm typing this from my office.at said company. We're 501 (c)3 non-profit. We provide healthcare to those individuals who work but either their company doesn't offer health insurance, or they can't afford it.

We're supported completely by donations ,grants and volunteers.. We take no state or federal money. There are over 400 doctors that volunteer their services along with every area hospital.

We have 5 physicians on staff at our clinic and they see about 30,000 patients a year.

Doctors offices, clinics, health centers and drug companies donate medication so that we have a fully stocked dispensary where we can provide patients with required medicines at little or no cost.

Oh, and we've been open for 15 years.
__________________
When life hands you a lemon, say "Oh yeah, I like lemons. What else you got?"

Henry Rollins
sipsake is offline  
Old 05-11-2004, 03:57 PM   #14 (permalink)
Junkie
 
kutulu's Avatar
 
Quote:
Originally posted by Stompy
You could go to the docs till you're blue in the face and they won't raise the individual rates like the other two types of insurance do.
Sorry but you're wrong about that. At my work there are less than 20 people on the plan. A few years back one of my coworkers had a lot of work done on him and everyone's rates went up.

Quote:
Then we can enjoy the same level of top-notch health care as our socialist and communist bretheren! And doctors will continue to flock to med school to spend 10 years of their life and over $100k to...not make any money.
Sorry but that's total bullshit. The ins company provides no real service other than paying the bills. They are not the employers of the docs. It's not like doctors' wages are going to be cut in half if the govt was paying the bills instead. It could be done but the population has been fooled into thinking it can't.

What is their return on investment? 10-20%? Even more maybe? What do they spend on advertising? The govt could be less efficient (by at least 25%) and still require less money than a for-profit organization.

The only thing better about our services is that we have more specialists. When it comes to regular checkups, the people in countries with socialized medicine are much happier with their health care than Americans are.

Last edited by kutulu; 05-11-2004 at 04:08 PM..
kutulu is offline  
Old 05-12-2004, 06:38 PM   #15 (permalink)
Psycho
 
gonadman's Avatar
 
Location: Philly
I was going to bite my tongue on this thread but I have to make a few comments on Kutulu's reply.

If the government was the sole payee of medical care, budget deficits would be remedied by decreasing provider payments, period. They would have no competition to maintain high quality standards. Huge money wasting midlevel pencil pushing bureacrocies that do nothing but provide jobs for the unqualified and uneducated would suck up your tax dollar(see Hilliary's Plan). And physicians would be inundated with even more excessive and ridiculous federal forms and policies to adhere to(see HIPAA).

Why do you think so few physicians take medicaid? Perhaps because of the yearly 4-5% CUTS in reimbursement? How would you like to earn $15 an hour this year, then next year earn $13, then lower and lower each year while the price to travel to that job(malpractice) doubles every year??

As far as socialized medicine goes, its great if you're not sick, so people are happy with inexpensive physicals. But perhaps some of our Canadian or British friends can tell us how long it takes to get a routine non emergency CT scan done? Americans who have been pampered with our present system really have no idea what health care rationing is all about.
__________________
For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, ...breathlessly.
-Carlos Castaneda
gonadman is offline  
Old 05-13-2004, 06:18 AM   #16 (permalink)
Banned from being Banned
 
Location: Donkey
Quote:
Originally posted by kutulu
Sorry but you're wrong about that. At my work there are less than 20 people on the plan. A few years back one of my coworkers had a lot of work done on him and everyone's rates went up
It depends on your insurance and who you have. Some places have crappy policies like that where if you actually use what you pay for, then they try to up your rates (which begs the question: what are you paying for?), some don't. I also happen to have supplemental insurance (AFLAC) where they PAY YOU if something happens. If I break my arm, I get $250 for simply getting a cast, $150 for the ER visit, $75 for a physical, $60 for eye/dental vists, etc...

So, in *my* case (and most other people I know w/ insurance), no, it won't go up. We only have 15 people or so on our insurance, and I went to the docts quite a lot last year.

I went to pretty much every specialized doc you can think of to get a more detailed check up to make sure things are working okay. For example, had 4 cardiologist visits where they did multiple tests each time just because I wanted to know how good/strong my heart was. I only had to pay $10 each visit, but man, I saw those bills. Upwards of $500 per visit.
__________________
I love lamp.
Stompy is offline  
 

Tags
health, insurance, rant

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 01:27 AM.

Tilted Forum Project

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360