Is Health Insurance Really Necessary
So, one of the toughest topics that I want to tackle and I don’t know where the future is going on this topic of medical insurance. I really think it’s a misnomer to call it health insurance, it’s almost like sick insurance, people don’t use their insurance to be well. They use it in times of trouble and emergencies, in a situation where they feel really ill and they haven’t been to the doctor in a few years.
People aren’t using their medical insurance for health, they’re using their medical insurance when they’re sick. People are afraid to go to the doctor because of the bills, they’re afraid to like rack and stack a bunch of medical bills and then not have an answer. So, what’s happened in this country is that people don’t go to the doctor for wellness.
The important part of this situation is that is medical insurance costs us too much money it takes a big chuck out of our paycheck every month and we don’t see to get the coverage we used to. I can give you an example back when in 1980 when I had my youngest child he was born prematurely by 111/2 weeks he was in the hospital for a long time. We had great medical insurance I think it was through Prudential I don’t know if Prudential does it anymore.
Our bill was $30,000, 3 weeks no 6 weeks stay and all of his ophthalmologist and specialists that came to see him at the hospital and he was there 6 to 8 weeks and went from 21/2 pound to 41/2 pounds and came home. But the bill was $30,000 I had an emergency C-section, of that entire bill we paid $600. Now they audited that bill and they kept us on the phone making sure that every med that they had on there he got and everything service they said was on the bill that he got.
Once it was all done it was 30 grand and we paid $600, there’s no such thing anymore, even with good coverage having a baby you’re going to put out of pocket as much money as 3to 4 times money that I put out to pay for my daughter when she was born with just $3000 cash there’s no such thing anymore and people are afraid.
So, I’m going to explain really quickly this may be a 2 partner I’m going to try. You need medical insurance, medical insurance is supposed to cover that catastrophic illness you may have. In the old days, there was a cap on the catastrophic illnesses in the Affordable Care Act, they can’t cap you. So, let’s say you have a cancer situation where you reach a million dollars on your deductible or partial deductible you’ve reached a million dollars.
They can say to you okay, we will no longer cover, anything for you in your health care. So, if you had AIDS, which a friend of mine did, he had AIDS and he reached his million dollars and the insurance company canceled him, and his brother who was a very powerful lawyer went and fought and said no you can’t continue his health coverage.
So, let’s be honest the insurance companies have always been in charge of your medical care they don’t want to put out for sick people. They do not want to cover you if you are ill, they want healthy people only. Back in the early 90s, I applied for insurance through Kaiser and I had fibrocystic breast disease which is benign breast tumors. They wrote me a letter and said you’re not the kind of person we want on our health care.
So, I was refused insurance back in the 90s because if that particular illness, might have been a little later than the 90s I’m a little blocked on that but I didn’t get health insurance from them they refused because I had a preexisting condition. What are preexisting conditions when you apply for medical care? Anything that they consider to be something that’s life-threatening or dangerous or expensive they can turn you down because of it.
So, let’s say you’ve had a mild heart attack when you were 42 and you’re now healthy in 46 in the old days and possibly coming in the future they can say to you no, you had a heart attack we are not giving you insurance. Or if we give you medical insurance we are excluding anything that has to do with your heart.
So, there are millions of people, millions and millions I can’t even tell you how many that have existing conditions that medical insurance can turn you down for. Diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, female problems, breast cancer, prostate cancer, urinary tract cancer, there are throat cancer, skin cancer.
They have been giving the go-ahead in the past to deny you coverage for any of those things when the Affordable Care Act came through it said hey! Do not discriminate against preexisting conditions and that’s where the rub comes in, everybody’s premium went up higher, why? Because what the insurance companies did is built in a little bit into each person’s premium and amount to cover preexisting conditions across the country.
So, maybe I don’t have any health conditions but I would be paying for someone who has diabetes, someone who gets pregnant somebody who has a heart attack. It’s built into my premium it’s not like mine record my health record gives jump up on health insurance premiums. They do it by age so they will say gosh! I was 39 I turned 40 and my health premium went up, why did my medical insurance go up? Well, you’ve now entered 40 the 40s are where these medical problems show up so they charge you.
When I turned 50 years old, oh my gosh, my premium went up 27% why because you’ve now entered the premiums for 50-year-olds who now start getting diabetes and for sure strokes, heart attacks. Then you’re like me you enter your 60s and when you enter your 60s you’re not considered a problem so your health insurance premium even goes higher.
So, stop thinking it’s like auto insurance, where oh! I haven’t had any accidents or tickets so my insurance premium is low. They still charge you auto insurance by your zip code. So, when you have your auto insurance and you live in zip code 90066, and 90066 has a lot of car thievery and burglaries and stuff your car insurance is going to be fit in with all the people that live in 90066 same with your health insurance. It goes by your age and where you live and what health insurance cost in your area.
I have talked to so many people and I feel that they’re very naïve about how medical insurance works. It is not about oh! Well I never had surgery and I’ve never had a heart attack and I’ve never had this or that no, based on where you live and your age you’re paying for everybody else in your age group and the fact that there are risks all of the medical insurance is about risk factors.
We need to understand that when we are debating the medical insurance premium issue and what health care will really cover I am saying that health care should cover you to be well. You should get regular checkups, everybody in this country should have blood pressure, affordable blood pressure machine to check their blood pressure.
If their blood pressure is continually high and even a resting blood pressure which means even sitting at a desk with your feet on the floor and your arms open, palms up and you are sitting there for 5 minutes very calmly breathing and then you take your blood pressure. If it’s high when you do that, you should be at the doctor but most people won’t go.
So, I think that the health insurance issue is going to be the biggest issue in 2017 and I want to be able to explain it I want to be able to get people on that can help you make a choice and I want the American people to be healthy happy and using their insurance the right way. The fact that you can’t afford it makes it the biggest issue around, be healthy, be happy to know what you’re doing understand how it works. We can do this together I promise, I’m 65, I’m on Medicare and I’m finding out a lot so go on this journey with me.