Misconceptions About Insurance
Two things came to my attention this week that coincide with each other and serve to demonstrate a frustration I have. My wife has been going to physical therapy to correct some injury(ies?) done to her back and shoulders. She's been nineteen times since the start of the new year, and was just told that her insurance will only cover thirty per year. Some good friends of mine had a child with severe heart defects and requires quite a lot of medical attention (though I hear she is doing well) and had to fight with their insurance to get their daughter the medicine she needs to stay healthy, and I assume, alive. I think you can see where this is going.
I wish I knew why it was that insurance, to me, means “when I have a problem you will fix it and put everything back to normal.” Somewhere, somehow, I got the impression that all my insurance companies are looking out for my best interests and will take care of me when things go South (as they inevitably do). Thus far our auto insurance has been great at fixing the damage done to our car, and for that I am quite very happy, and actually surprised they didn't fight me on it. However, the biggest let down has got to be health insurance.
Back when I had to pay for my own health insurance I picked a “major medical” plan, which meant they covered nothing, but were there for an emergency. I knew this, and so if I ever felt the need to go to the doctor I knew I was going to pay for it out of my pocket. Consequently I didn't go to the doctor at all, but had I decided to I knew I was going to have to pay. Now that I am covered by my company's health plan I have this wild and crazy idea that because the coverage is better, the coverage is total. Did I just fall off the turnip truck? I've spent how many years in college?
I wish, oh how I wish, health insurance meant, “when you get sick we'll pay for everything it takes to get you back to 100% health, but that's crazy talk, and I know it. Health insurance is a business. All insurance is a business. And businesses exist to make money. Insurance might play the Law of Averages, but they aren't a charitable organization. They have a finite sum of money and I suspect it would take more than that sum of money to ”fix“ all the sick people with insurance. Health care is expensive. That is a fact I willingly accept. I won't argue about whether it should or should not be expensive, I'm not sure I know enough of the problem to comment on that.
I'm not sure there is a problem here beyond my ability to get my head around what my insurance company will and will not provide for. I'm not even sure that matters in the long run. If I'm sick and I need to get better should I care who pays for it? Would I really choose to prolong my illness (or even die) because of money? In the end, I'm just airing out my frustrations. No harm, no foul, and no I'm not interested in health care reform.
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