From: Michael S. Lorrey (retroman@turbont.net)
Date: Mon Jul 10 2000 - 14:04:35 MDT
Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> > Not everyone. I for example, have not kept health insurance in over ten years,
> > have not had any health problems that a trip to the local drug store and some
> > bed rest could not cure. I estimate I have saved over $25,000.00 in insurance
> > premiums in that time. I know that insurance, private or public, is merely a con
> > game to get healthy people like me to pay for other people's problems. Now I'm
> > going to be painted as a cruel, cruel, and selfishly mean person for living this
> > way. Too bad. Its my money.
>
> I certainly don't begrudge your choice, and I'm sure I'm one of those
> who has paid a lot more in premiums than I ever got in benefits--even
> after the MRI, ENG, and other tests and drugs I got for my Meniere's
> Disease (maybe about $3-4000). I do pay cash for dental work.
>
> But I would point out that health insurance is not /entirely/ a scam
> or redistribution system. As much as Rand would hate to admit it,
> shit happens. There really are completely random events that can
> cost people hundreds of thousands of dollars; even the healthiest,
> most conscientious people. Nothing in Kennita's lifestyle, for
> example, caused her MS--she just happened to be the one. You or I
> could be next. I prefer to think of health insurance as a hedged
> bet; sure the house percentage is high if you're healthy, and the
> system as a whole may encourage unhealthful practices, but I still
> want the hedge, because losing the bet is a killer.
If insurance were truly a fair bet, it would account for my healthy state in my
premiums. That it doesn't indicates that its a scam. Yes, shit does happen.
However there are people that shit tends not to happen to. Insurance forms, for
example, do not ask the ages or dates of birth and death of your ancestors, so
they totally leave out any possibility for people with healthy and long lived
genomes to realize benefits from their natural state. Insurance policies also do
not account for your past health history.
Some on the list will say I'm not following the social contract, blah blah blah.
The social contract is typically a piece of paper they hold over your eyes while
they are going for your wallet.
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