We have seen many arguments on both sides of the political fence on why we should and should not have health care reform.
Now lets step back for a moment and look at the whole picture, so this means that you must put down those torches and pitchforks for a moment.
The insurance industry has been around for a long time, if I remember correctly, the first insurance policies were sold back in the middle 1800’s.
Now insurance was an idea that if something happened, you would be covered for losses for whatever reason. Now in reality, that sounds like a good idea, actually a great idea. I am sure each and every person that will read this post has made some sort of claim to his or her insurance company because of some loss. I bet you this claim really helped you in the time of need because who really has $4,000 to fix their car at any given moment after that little fender bender, or who has that extra $4,000 in tools stolen from their vehicle while they are working.
What if we didn’t have insurance companies today? Would the cost to fix the above car really cost us $4,000? Would the replacement costs of those tools really cost us $4,000? One blogger stated that she had paid out approximately $40,000 over ten years for insurance and when she finally had a claim, it was denied. What if that blogger was able to put that $40,000 in the bank just to outright pay for any loss that she may or may not ever have to fork out?
If the insurance industry were really a free market, would we have laws demanding that we have insurance on our homes, our cars, in some states, our health? You even pay out every check for unemployment tax / insurance. Some people are even forced to have mortgage insurance. Look at how much insurance one has to pay out per month for premiums. Liability insurance for one can be costly, disability insurance, health care insurance for their employees, theft, fire, you name it, there are insurance premiums to pay.
Since the insurance company exists solely on the “what if’s”, what if there were no insurance?
Would we being paying the high cost for our shiny new cars? How much would GM save from paying out insurance and how much of that savings would be passed back to the consumer?
Would you really be paying that much to see a doctor? What if you could cut the exorbitant amount of malpractice insurance out that a doctor has to pay? If doctors didn’t have malpractice insurance, of course we would have to cap the amount malpractice and our courts would have to do a much better job at seeing through the fraud and abuse in our system, but they should be doing that already.
Would your food costs be lower? Would your home be cheaper? The list goes on and on, if we took the cost that everyone has to pay in this system, would we really be paying any of the prices we pay today. That cost is always passed down to the consumer in some way.
Lets just say the insurance industry is $20 Billion dollars per year of the economy, if we took that equation out, we would have $20 billion dollars per year in the pockets of the consumers. Consumers would have the ability to put that money aside for other things, like paying for their health care on their own. Or fixing that car and paying cash then calling an insurance company, getting the car towed, waiting for the adjuster, then waiting to get the car fixed. After the insurance company pays to get your car fixed, guess what, your premium has over 60% chance of getting a premium hike.
What could you do with that extra every month? How much would the companies be able to pass back to the consumer? Could it be that an out of control insurance industry one of the main reasons our economy is crippled?