Why We Need More UNinsured Americans
A Proposal For Affordable and Safe Health Care
This column was originally published April 13, 2006. The cost of insurance premiums has risen steadily since then – especially in Massachusetts. The 2006 Massachusetts insurance mandate (”RomneyCare”) is costing individuals and businesses over $1 billion more for insurance coverage than before the mandate took effect.
Socialized medicine’s true believers — who dominate the ranks of mainstream news reporters and politicians — try to bludgeon us into believing that the lack of medical insurance is a crisis, a disaster, and a never-ending emergency.
Here’s an example of how a news report typically casts the “uninsured”:
“The number of uninsured or underinsured people in the United States is estimated to be about 46 million… they sit on the edge of catastrophe.” (Journal Times, Wisconsin, February 27, 2006)
But “uninsured” Americans are usually nowhere near “catastrophe.” They have plenty of access to urgent care when they need it.
Moreover, they save themselves a boatload of money by steering clear of one of America’s biggest money pits: health insurance.
We don’t need more insurance in America. We need much less.
The black hole of medical insurance
Americans who don’t have health insurance are often neither poor nor do they lack access to medical care. They simply choose not to buy insurance because they believe it’s a bad use of their money.
In Massachusetts — the Overpriced Health Care Capital of the World — young, healthy families can spend over $9,400 a year for the cheapest HMO policy they can find, and over $19,800 for a broader coverage plan. Families with middle-aged parents can spend over $30,000 — every year — to be insured. The older you are, the more unaffordable it gets.
What’s worse, these exorbitant prices don’t even guarantee that you’ll be covered. A policy’s fine print gives insurance companies the option to terminate your coverage if your care drags on too long. The insured who suffer from a serious disease or medical trauma have to turn to the same government welfare programs they would if they had no insurance at all. What’s the point of buying an insurance policy that doesn’t insure you in your times of greatest need?
“Uninsured”: Down & out? Or smart investors?
The “uninsured” are portrayed as poor, desolate souls on the brink of “catastrophe.” But contrary to media propaganda, they have access to the health care they need.
The wealthy don’t need health insurance. Their money is better spent on investments that provide a return. They can easily cover the cost of treating a serious medical condition.
Many above-average wage earners don’t need insurance either. They’re better off investing their money in their retirement and withdrawing funds for health care only if there’s a need.
Even people with no cash savings to fall back on — average and below-average income families — are often able to insure themselves. They may have an IRA or equity in a home or business they can borrow against in the event of an emergency. Although a serious illness could wipe out their assets, they at least have a chance of building wealth — and not depleting what assets they have by forking over huge sums for an overpriced medical insurance policy.
Individuals and families that invest the money they would otherwise spend on medical insurance can build a nest egg worth over $100,000 in just 5 years. In 10 years it could grow to over $250,000 — enough to cover a major health care catastrophe. Or buy a house. If they continue to enjoy good health, they can retire as millionaires.
Hazards of medical insurance
There are other good reasons to avoid medical insurance.
Whenever an insurance company pays for health services, it drives up everyone’s cost — yours included — and renders health care services clumsy, inefficient, and even dangerous.
Neither patients nor providers have incentive to keep costs down. This encourages doctors to prescribe procedures you don’t need — raising costs for insurance companies. They respond in turn by raising the price of your premiums, raising the amount you must pay for co-pays and deductibles, and reducing the services they cover.
In addition, excess treatment can put your health at risk. Patients who undergo unnecessary tests, operations, and drug regimens sometimes end up with worse medical problems than they started with.
At the same time, insurance rules forbid practitioners from giving you services you actually need. Again, your health suffers.
When you pay directly for services, you or someone you trust is in the driver’s seat. You and your health care providers have direct incentive to give you high quality care at a reasonable price.
Medical insurance co-pays, deductibles, and coverage denials make medical bills confusing and hard to read. Billing errors are common — and difficult to correct. You’re forced to either pay what your bill instructs you to pay or to try to avoid overpayment by submerging yourself in paperwork that can be as complicated and infuriating as filing taxes.
The best way to minimize billing hassles is to forgo medical insurance and pay your providers directly for medical services.
If insurance is such a bad investment, why do so many people have it?
Many Americans have insurance because Big Government mandates it, subsidizes it, and provides tax incentives for it.
Seniors are forced to sign up for Medicare or they forfeit their Social Security checks.
Taxpayers are forced to fund high-priced health plans for government employees and government retirees.
Employers are forced to provide their employees insurance. If employers were free to use the tax-free money they now spend on medical insurance to pay tax-free wages instead, many employees would far prefer the higher wages. It’s a much better deal.
Others buy insurance, or seek a job that provides insurance, because of the horror stories they’ve heard about how expensive medical bills can be. A catastrophic care episode can cost tens, even hundreds, of thousands of dollars and leave a family in dire financial straights.
Big Government is directly responsible for these high costs. Thousands of state and federal laws, regulations, mandates, and subsidies drive up the cost of health care. What should be a minimal part of the family budget is a backbreaking expense.
But rather than end these disastrous Big Government Health Care Programs and allow prices to drop, Big Government Politicians seek to expand them. This keeps the cost of surgery, hospital stays, office visits, lab tests, drugs, medical devices and procedures artificially high, which in turn creates an artificial – and unnecessary – high demand for insurance.
If we end Big Government Health Care by repealing these laws, regulations, mandates and subsidies, prices for medical services will drop dramatically. Far fewer people will need or want insurance. The cost of medical insurance will drop in turn, making lower-cost plans available that cover what you need.
People also seek insurance because Big Government outlaws health care charity, leaving poor people with medical problems nowhere else to turn but to Big Government welfare programs.
Years ago, medical special interests convinced politicians to shut down free clinics for the poor, once common in the United States. Rather than allow them to reopen, socialized medicine advocates claim that the high cost of health care is the fault of the “uninsured” who run to a hospital emergency room every time they have a problem. What they don’t want you to know is that their Big Government political allies cut off these poor people from charitable alternatives that would keep them out of ERs. They’d rather force everyone into a medical insurance plan – or government welfare – than allow the private sector to provide free, humane medical care without government interference.
Bemoaning the “uninsured” is a ruse. Big Government Politicians drive up the cost of health care. They drive affordable free-market alternatives out of business. They drive charities out of business. Then they blame the taxpayer for not buying health insurance — made unaffordable by Big Government. It’s a scam.
Get Big Government out of health care
We must reject calls for more insurance. Rather, we should celebrate every time Americans free themselves from government welfare or from unnecessary, overpriced government-mandated health insurance.
We can greatly reduce the need for medical insurance by bringing down the high cost of both medical care and medical insurance. How? By removing Big Government Health Care prohibitions, mandates, regulations, and subsidies.
How do we transition from today’s Big Government Health Care to health freedom?
By properly prioritizing where we cut first. We must remove all Big Government laws and regulations that escalate medical care costs or that prohibit free care FIRST. Then cut back subsidies that people depend on LAST — after low-cost, free market alternatives are in place and charities have been freed to re-open their doors to serve the poor.
We must vote against every politician who refuses to reduce, remove and repeal the thousands of medical care laws, regulations, prohibtions and subsidies on the books today. Who denies us our health freedom.
We must vote out of office those politicians who blackmail voters by threatening to cut needed subsidies — while leaving in place the legions of health care laws and regulations that drive up cost and reduce access to medical care.
We must seek, support and vote for humane candidates who will properly prioritize reductions.
When we separate health care from government, we’ll dissolve the government-contrived, artificial demand for high-priced medical insurance. The cost of both medical care and medical insurance will plummet. Those who need insurance will be able to buy affordable policies that protect them in their times of greatest need. Those who can’t afford care at all will have access to lovingly-donated free care services.
By replacing Big Government health care and government-mandated insurance with free market and charitable health care, we’ll get the highest possible quality of care – and longer, healthier lives – at a fraction of today’s costs.
We’ll stop wasting over $1 trillion every year on overpriced medical spending — and put it back in the pockets of workers and taxpayers who earned it.
Note: Since original publication of this column on April 13, 2006, it was learned that Tennessee is relatively lax about permitting the operation of free medical care clinics. However, free clinics appear to remain effectively prohibited throughout most of the United States. If you find a clinic that operates without government interference, without government-granted privileges (i.e. does not outlaw competitors) and without tax dollars (including subsidies funneled through other organizations) — i.e., an unencumbered health care charity — please let us know by contacting the Center For Small Government.
It is worth noting that while free clinics unaffiliated with government are largely prohibited, many individual medical professionals generously donate their services and/or give price breaks to those in need who lack financial means. We applaud their kindness and humanity.
