The Healthcare Debate – Define “Insurance”

Healthcare crisis…trillions of dollars…50 million uninsured…
As the debate of healthcare rages in the Congress and Democrats trying desperately trying to craft a healthcare bill before the world ends on August 1, has anyone stopped and actually defined “insurance”?

The dictionary defines insurance in this manner:…Insurance: the act, system, or business of insuring property, life, one's person, etc., against loss or harm arising in specified contingencies, as fire, accident, death, disablement, or the like, in consideration of a payment proportionate to the risk involved.

I think the key word here is “risk”. Then be definition, insurance is a hedge against risk or event in the future against some catastrophic situation.

- If you buy life insurance, you are protecting your family against the event of death and the loss of income and expenses that the event of death would bring.

- If you buy homeowner’s insurance, you are protecting your asset (home) against the unforeseen event of fire, weather, etc. that may cause huge financial outlays to repair or rebuild your home.

- If you buy car insurance, you are protecting your asset (car) against the unforeseen event of an accident or worse that would result in significant financial outlays to replace or repair your car.

But through the years as more and more companies provided healthcare benefits to their employees, the definition of health “insurance” came to mean no only hedges against expensive procedures such as surgery or cancer treatments, but also routine visits to the doctor’s office and prescription drugs. In the 60’s and 70’s when I was growing up, my family had major medical insurance that covered the “catastrophic” events such as hospital stays, surgery, or long-term treatments. But routine visits to the doctor’s office were paid for out of pocket. Now, we expect our “insurance” to cover the routine.

Would you expect your car insurance company to cover oil changes…or your homeowner’s insurance to cover painting the bedroom or cleaning the gutters? Then why do we expect health “insurance” to cover the routine as well? Most people understand the importance of preventive maintenance when it comes to our car or our homes and expect to pay out of pocket for that service.

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) were allowed for this purpose. A tax-free account that responsible persons could accumulate money to pay for the routine preventive measures in return for a lower premium to cover the major medical events. Two problems for Democrats….”tax-free” and “individual responsibility”. In the Democratic world, these two phrases are blasphemous.

Let’s keep and expand the HSAs where people can be responsible for there own routine maintenance and begin real and relevant discussions about controlling healthcare costs instead of the obvious power grab by Washington disguised as “healthcare” reform.

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