Thursday, November 15, 2012

Better Than Obamacare

Great video from ReasonTV

I don’t know all the details of the medical industry.  I know that is a complex and very confusing system, mostly due to government intervention in the market for decades.  I do know, however, about my own recent issues with my insurance company and all the stupid crap that goes on.

My wife had suffered five miscarriages in a row.  These all happened at around the sixth week.  Clearly, there was something wrong, so she and I went to see a fertility clinic.  During this process, I was laid off from the company I was working and had to find a new job.  I did so rather easily and then had to get a new insurance company.

After all the tests were done, we were getting bills in the mail from LabCorp, who did most of the tests, because my new insurance company was not paying them.  So, rather than paying them the 500 dollars they were charging us, I contacted my insurance company to figure out why they weren’t paying.

And here is where the whole concept of the government looking out for normal people is a big lie: I found out that they were not paying the bills because they were part of a pre-existing condition.  In other words, the Affordable Care Act is a big lie and only really oppresses the poor by fining them for not being rich enough to buy health insurance.  I managed to get it resolved, by having my old insurance company send my new one a letter of credible coverage, but I thought those things were not supposed to matter.

For one file kick in the ass, I got a statement from my new insurance company telling me how much they paid LabCorp.  Of the 500 dollars, they paid no more than 50.  No, I wasn’t charged the difference.  They literally discounted 90% of the charge.  Meanwhile, I would have been stuck with an overcharged lab test bill had I paid it myself.

The fact is, our healthcare system has not been free market in a long time.  It hasn’t been exactly Socialist either, but some weird system where the individual gets shafted while the large companies and the government officials benefit the most.

The video at the beginning shared how there are other options to what we have now.  There is always a better option and the people who run the government are clueless to most of them.  Always remember that.