Right now, as you say, every part of the health care system is screwing us — doctors, lawyers, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, administrators, insurance companies, you name it.

Also, I think it’s worth being cautious about the idea of “shopping around” when it comes to health care. Very often patients are not knowledgeable enough to understand their needs.

And yeah, I wasn’t in a wreck. But, thanks for the well-wishes anyway. :)

Imagine for a moment that we treated car insurance just like health insurance. You would not likely buy your own insurance. It would be a job benefit. Okay, so far not so bad.

If you got into a wreck you would pay the tow truck driver a $15 co-pay, and show your insurance card. Most of you would not take the time to shop around for the cheapest tow truck driver because you wouldn’t care how much it costs. Your co-pay would always be $15. Okay, this is starting to look precarious.

When the car arrives at the body shop you pay your $15.00 co-pay and show your insurance card. You don’t give a hoot how much it costs nor do you even know. Your payment is $15. You don’t care how much the body shop charges your insurance because your payment is always $15. You go with the body shop that promises you the best paint job regardless of cost. (I see a train wreck coming).

When you get a flat tire you don’t shop around for the tires that are on sale. You get the best replacement money can buy because, after all, your safety and your car are worth it. And besides, at the tire shop you don’t pay for the tire. You pay the $15 co-pay and the rest goes to insurance.

You’re driving along the Interstate on a long trip and you notice the gas tank is just about empty. So you pull into the gas station and fill up. You don’t even notice the price. Why would you? You put down your auto insurance card and pay your $15 co-pay. If gasoline is $100 per gallon what do you care? That’s the insurance company’s problem not yours. And the insurance premiums are paid by your boss. Again, what do you care?

Imagine for a moment what the cost of our transportation system would be. Every single aspect of owning a car would get exponentially more expensive year by year (just like the cost of health care) because consumers would not care what it costs. Just gimme the best. I don’t care what it costs. Let the insurance pay, and for that matter let the boss or the government pay for the insurance premiums.

This is conceptually how we handle health insurance.

Insurance is supposed to be the means by which you are indemnified for a sudden and unexpected loss. You don’t expect to get into a major car crash and then go to the emergency room. That’s a sudden and unexpected loss. You don’t expect to get a $100,000 medical bill after a heart attack. That’s a sudden and unexpected loss. Insurance is a valid idea for such circumstances.

However, you do expect to go to the doctor for a regular check up. That is not a sudden and unexpected loss. You do expect to get a cold or the flu from time to time. This is not a sudden or unexpected loss. Insurance serves to distort and pervert under such circumstances.

Every level of health care goes up in price, and we cannot figure out why. Doctors order x-rays and MRI’s and blood tests that they & the patients don’t need. What do you care? The insurance pays and besides if the doctor gets sued for malpractice he or she can say, “Well, gosh I did all I could. I ordered every possible test!”

Most forms of health insurance should be made illegal.

There of course should be some sort of safety net for the most vulnerable in our society but for the most part a health insurance policy should only indemnify you for a sudden and unexpected loss. The price of medicine would come down dramatically and the quality of care would go up dramatically because doctors would be competing to have the best quality for the lowest price. (I bet some doctors who have learned how to game the system in the last 30 years would argue otherwise!)

My suggestion ain’t gonna happen because health insurance is now an emotional issue rather than economic issue. There’s no way to get the Genie back in the bottle. Too many Oprahs will cry and cry and cry on TV at the very suggestion. It just ain’t gonna happen.

Government run health care is on the way. And there’s nothing long-term to stop it. Then we can all sit around and gripe about how we’re not any happier with government care than what we have right now.

By the way, if you invite an illegal alien to come work for you at dastardly low wages (and without paying health insurance and employment taxes etc), you should be made responsible for that person’s medical bills when he or she shows up at the local hospital. You didn’t pay your fair share when they were healthy. You ought to have to pay some part of your fair share when they get sick!