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Why Is Health Care Special
Jul. 30th, 2009 08:40 amSo, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bdunbar provided a link to this fellow, who asks why is health care special? In other words, why don't we treat health care like, say ordering a meal in a restaurant.
Well, part of the answer is called rescission. This is where you pay your premiums, get sick, and then get dropped for an undiagnosed or unknown pre-existing condition. It's the equivalent of walking into a restaurant, ordering and paying for a meal, getting the soup, but then not getting the main course. And not getting a refund! Sorry you're stillsick hungry - not our fault.
The more fundamental answer is that a lot of our health is out of our control. There is no way to prevent gallstones. I had melanoma a few years ago. Maybe if I hadn't spent my youth standing on the bridge of a frigate in Florida - or maybe not. My father and his brother both had prostate cancer in their mid-50s, vastly increasing my risk. Other than picking different parents, what am I supposed to do about that?
Attempting to financially encourage people to be healthy is a great idea. Unfortunately, there are real limits to how much control we have over our health. Penalizing people for matters over which they have no control is fundamentally un-American. Except that's exactly what our current health care system does.
bdunbar provided a link to this fellow, who asks why is health care special? In other words, why don't we treat health care like, say ordering a meal in a restaurant.Well, part of the answer is called rescission. This is where you pay your premiums, get sick, and then get dropped for an undiagnosed or unknown pre-existing condition. It's the equivalent of walking into a restaurant, ordering and paying for a meal, getting the soup, but then not getting the main course. And not getting a refund! Sorry you're still
The more fundamental answer is that a lot of our health is out of our control. There is no way to prevent gallstones. I had melanoma a few years ago. Maybe if I hadn't spent my youth standing on the bridge of a frigate in Florida - or maybe not. My father and his brother both had prostate cancer in their mid-50s, vastly increasing my risk. Other than picking different parents, what am I supposed to do about that?
Attempting to financially encourage people to be healthy is a great idea. Unfortunately, there are real limits to how much control we have over our health. Penalizing people for matters over which they have no control is fundamentally un-American. Except that's exactly what our current health care system does.
