Health Insurance ramblings

[bluestained_elf]

I've been listening to podcasts last night and tonight about health insurance.  Some interesting facts, before I get too boring:

Blue Cross was the first health insurance company, and was started at Baylor University of Dallas for local teachers before the great depression.  After WW2, an IRS bureaucrat said that companies got tax breaks for

Comments

[bluestained_elf]

I typically don't even go to the doc when I'm sick. Just about a month or two ago, I went in for a physical and general check up because I have not had one for over 10 years, and I recognize that I am not the young whipper-snapper that I once was.

All that being said, though, the system needs an overhaul. The average pay, when you take inflation into account, did not rise at all since 2000, but health insurance rose by $6500 per family (mostly paid for by our employers). That money should have been coming to us as raises (as it has historically throughout the 90s), but instead it went to raised health insurance costs. That is a perfect example of how this affects us without us even realizing it.

I hope you aren't getting turned off to health insurance change because everyone is talking about it. It is important and will certainly affect us without us even knowing it.

[bluestained_elf]

Or have you seen this? It is an oldie, but a goodie.

[bluestained_elf]

I've read that most sinus infections start off as viral, and antibiotics don't help. However, after about a week they often become bacterial and antibiotics become effective.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301604.html

I think antibiotics after the duration of your sinus infection probably qualifies as justified!

[dragonsbones]

I think part of the issue is that it's impossible as it is to get everyone on an equivalent playing field. The system needs an overhaul for that to happen, IMO.

this american life

[mjhj24]

Funny you mention This American Life. My friend just turned me on to it. I started listening to the 'devil' episode yesterday, but only got about 15 mins in before life interrupted me.

Re: this american life

[bluestained_elf]

In my opinion, this american life is hit or miss. I subscribe to the podcast but I cherry-pick which episodes I listen to. I am, however, totally hooked on the Radiolab pocast. It is science (!) and I eagerly await their new episodes.

This american life has had some good episodes, I can see why your friend recommended it.

[mo_corleone]

"keep people from wanting all of these crazy medicines and procedures"

i agree that this would be a step in the right direction, but what is it that causes people to want this stuff in the first place? 1. advertising (pharmaceutical), and 2. the disorder-ization of the human condition (my biggest gripe). if we didn't make everything a 'syndrome' then people wouldn't be as likely to freak out over the 'symptoms' (aka normal but unpleasant physical and emotional realities of life)

related reading: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09284/1004304-109.stm#ixzz0U8eG4aNR

[bluestained_elf]

YES! That article is exactly my line of thought. We *are* turning into a nation of wimps! And we don't think about the dollar amounts associated with medical care because we aren't paying for it directly.

[djchai]

I think that the problem is far more complex than that. People who rarely get sick because they have healthy immune systems always think the same bullshit. "I never get sick, so everyone else who is sick all the time is either faking, or it's in their heads

[bluestained_elf]

Asthma medication is one thing; I had asthma that was putting me into the hospital several times a year until I was about 6 or 7, and I know that not being able to breathe is debilitating. However, I believe that taking medication often for mild allergies, headaches, and acid-reflux is over-medicating. Don't get me wrong, there are un-mild cases of the above that deserve medication, but generally when I get any of those I don't take anything.

I'd like to also point out that if we set up universal health insurance without getting the costs down / under control, we'd bankrupt our nation. In 2005, a study was done by the Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management, and they found our health care costs 140% per capita more than the median industrialized country.

I am all for change, and all for getting people like my brother and yourself insurance, and securing insurance for myself if I were to lose my job. Perhaps universalizing health insurance would cause it to be cheaper per person, but before we universalize