And it is precisely why this sense of entitlement to health needs to end:
People with insurance have said to me,’I didn’t get that prescription, because I’d have to pay with my own money!’ As if I suggested that they sprout wings. (Crazy talk, that! Investing in your own health, when you could buy a new i-pod and download some music!)I don’t blame my young friend, really. He’s simply grown up in a system that says that your health is someone else’s responsibility. Pity, that. Because friends, it’s only going to get worse.
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- Do non-English speakers cost practices money?
- Does preventive medicine save money or cost more in the long run?
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People no longer respect or trust authority of any kind, except their peers, which is a condition of adolescence, and more and more people seem to see no reason to mature beyond adolescence where ‘adults’ are perpetually responsible, not them, for just about everything. Politicians and lawyers, etc, pander to them (adolescents are easily manipulated) because there are votes to be had, money to be made.
It’d be great to someday see health insurance act more like car insurance: we pay for the day to day and expect to pay for routine prescriptions, but when it comes to unexpected things like major diagnostic tests, then we should be covered. Yet, as insurers try to make their packages look more attractive, the deductibles and co-pays have become so high that for most of us relatively healthy people, we pay the insurance company large annual sums AND nearly all the costs every year. I applaud those doctors who shun insurance, charge a flat fee, and have negotiated with labs and others for lower rates, and can therefore practice financially realistic medicine.
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