Redlemon

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?

onetime2

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.

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iccky

Especially since Lasik would save them money in the long run, not having to buy you more glasses and contacts and all.

MSD

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

canuckguy

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

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.

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.

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irseg

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?

BenChuy

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).

Stompy

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.

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irseg

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"

Redlemon

C'mon, someone here has to work in insurance. Or know someone who does. Please?

sipsake

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.

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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.

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.

gonadman

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.

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Stompy

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.

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