Is
it Better without health Insurance?
We always complaint about the cost of Health Insurance and
we would like an explanation about it. Why is it that when you have health
insurance you end up paying more than when you do not have it? Yes! You pay more
with health Insurance than with out it. There are some serious things to fix in
this system.
If you decide to buy your insurance from big companies like
Blue Cross or Humana, the cost of your health insurance will be, depending on
your circumstances (age, weight, etc), a big part of your salary. The cost of
the plans that the insurance companies offer will push you to adjust the rate
with an increasing deductible because, the higher the deductible the lower the
monthly premium. For instance $2500.00. which has to be met before any amount be
paid from the insurance company.
If you happen to get sick or end up in the hospital, in
many instances, you will end up paying more than others without health
insurance. Why do I say this? Because, if your treatment costs $2000.00., the
hospital will ask you for that amount and in top of that you have to be up to
date with your insurance payments. If the fiscal year of the health insurance is
about to end, the $2500.00 will have to be cover again the following year to be
able to utilize the health insurance policy. In other words you are making your
insurance payments but you had to pay the full amount of the cost of your
treatment.
How about if you did not have any health insurance when you
go to the hospital? Well, the hospital or doctor will give you a “non-insured
rate” which could be less than half of what corresponds to an insured
individual. In other words, if you have insurance you pay $2000.00 but if you do
not have any insurance you may pay $800.00.
A specific scenario: If you pay $300.00 per month for your
health insurance and you end up using it once in the year on an emergency room
situation and you had to pay $2000.00 for the treatment, that particular year
your expense will be $5600.00. $3600.00 on insurance fees and $2000.00 for the
treatment (plus prescription drugs) and the full amount has to be covered by
you. But, if you did not have any health insurance coverage, you may end up
paying a total of $800.00 for that year.
Major health insurance may be a good thing to have for
expenses over $10000.00 but, of course, you can not get health insurance with a
preexisting condition covered from the beginning of the policy. In other words,
if you know that you are going to be expending a big amount in hospital fees
soon, it will be very difficult to get approved for coverage. If you just want
to go to the doctor to get a regular check up, for a cold or small diagnostics
and you use your insurance to work towards the deductible, you have a though
decision to make. Will I pay $60.00 by telling them that I have no health
insurance or should I pay $160.00 and use that money to cover part of my
deductible?
Hospitals and health care providers charge more to insured
people because they may want to make up for the money lost to patients that have
no coverage but, why should people that get health insurance coverage and make
their monthly premiums pay for the ones that don’t?. This bring me to the
question, is it better no to have major health coverage? Should I let others pay
for my insurance expenses? The problem is, to me, that when there is an
adjustment made by the governmental insurance regulation departments, is always
done in a way that will make people expend more money in doctor fees or
insurance coverage.
We need to do something about our health care system
because more and more people will soon start seen that it is, in some instances,
better no to have health insurance coverage. Money is lost by hospitals and
health care providers but more money is lost by health insurance holders. The
promise from the government has been that something is going to be done. We can
not sit down and wait anymore.
Luisrcg
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