Has Your Health Insurance Been Cancelled by Obama?

[Guynemer]

Nota bene: Guynemer, you're a great dude and you're awesome and your opinions on things are generally excellent.

With that said, you have a habit which I find terribly puzzling. That habit is repeatedly saying that Americans are idiots, don't do obviously intelligent things, common sense is retarded, etc. This I don't on the whole disagree with one bit. What's terribly puzzling is the fact that you also have a tendency to take many statements and cast them as ridiculous simply because they are unconventional--that is, they defy the common wisdom, which you so frequently take to be retarded. I find this contradictory.

I stand by the statement that I made--that most people would be better off if their insurance only covered risks that they can't afford. This is what people generally get for car insurance, flood/fire insurance, and every other kind of insurance. My statement is that people should get insurance, instead of what is essentially a prepaid debit card exclusive to healthcare. As it happens, the only reason such health plans existed (pre-obamacare) is a ridiculous tax advantage for such plans that shouldn't exist. Now the only reason it exists is because it is the only kind of "insurance" that is legal.

By buying insurance for something that is not an unmanageable risk, you are probably wasting lots of money. Assuming the insurance premium correctly corresponds to your actual risk (which thanks to obamacare's pricing rules, it probably is not, but would be pre-obamacare), you have no reason to spend any more on insurance than you have to to be covered for catastrophic risk.

Think carefully about my position on this and what I do for a living. That might be instructive to why I find your stance a bit nuts.

[DinoDoc]

Think carefully about my position on this and what I do for a living. That might be instructive to why I find your stance a bit nuts.

I know how much you envy the Maine doctor.

[Dr Strangelove]

Vaccines without insurance run up into the hundreds of dollars. If the government didn't support vaccination in the US we'd probably be facing epidemics of polio, measles and rubella.

[Guynemer]

I know how much you envy the Maine doctor.

It would be nice, but most of my families would not be able to afford it.


EDIT: I see I have been ninja'd by the good doctor.

[DinoDoc]

Vaccines without insurance run up into the hundreds of dollars.

Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) Private Sector Cost/ Dose $56.139

~ 56$ isn't that much in the over all scheme of things, Dr S. It's hardly hundreds of dollars. I will grant you that I couldn't find a price for the polio vaccine though.

[MikeH]

Very wrong--insurance is about risk management. Without insurance, you'd be ****ed if you were one of the unlucky ones to get hit by a rare but expensive cost. Insurance amortizes rare but expensive costs across an entire population, so you are guaranteed to pay tiny fraction of the cost but are also eliminate your risk. Most people will pay a little more and very few people will pay a lot less. This is much more efficient.

You realise this is literally exactly the same as everyone paying through the health service through tax, the only difference is that typically the cost per person is based on means to pay not on risk.

In insurance situation people who are very high risk can't afford to pay, often through no fault of their own.

[MikeH]

Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) Private Sector Cost/ Dose $56.139

~ 56$ isn't that much in the over all scheme of things, Dr S. It's hardly hundreds of dollars. I will grant you that I couldn't find a price for the polio vaccine though.

Cost is £6 to the NHS BTW.

[Guynemer]

Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) Private Sector Cost/ Dose $56.139

~ 56$ isn't that much in the over all scheme of things, Dr S. It's hardly hundreds of dollars. I will grant you that I couldn't find a price for the polio vaccine though.

Okay. What about the HiB shot, also given around 15 months? The 18 month DTaP and HepA? 12 month Varicella, Prevnar, HepA? The 2/4/6 month series of DTaP/Polio/HiB, HepB, Prevnar, and Rotateq? Got some Influenza vaccines in there as well.

[DinoDoc]

Cost is £6 to the NHS BTW.

Cost is $19.759 to the CDC and that cost includes a $2.25 dose Federal Excise Tax.

[DinoDoc]

Okay. What about the HiB shot, also given around 15 months? The 18 month DTaP and HepA? 12 month Varicella, Prevnar, HepA? The 2/4/6 month series of DTaP/Polio/HiB, HepB, Prevnar, and Rotateq? Got some Influenza vaccines in there as well.

The link gives prices for all of those from various manufacturers. I still don't know which one is the polio one though.

[MikeH]

His point is, all those add up to hundreds of dollars.

x

[Hauldren Collider]

Why am I not shocked that richy mcrich seemingly hasn't heard of Medicare Advantage? Or premium subsidies?

I'll give you only a few guesses as to what type of insurance coverage Guy was thinking for the poor when he laughed at you, Little Kuci McDuck.

1. richy mcrich? Are you 12?

2. What the **** does Medicare have to do with anything? A shift to mostly catastrophic coverage has exactly nothing to do with Medicare, which can cover whatever the hell it wants. Also, I never said you should make Obamacare-type plans illegal, just make catastrophic coverage more legal and available. It's what most people want when you let them buy their own insurance.

[Hauldren Collider]

His point is, all those add up to hundreds of dollars.

x

Food often adds up to hundreds of dollars too. Your point being?

Anyway, subsidizing vaccines is fine. Vaccination has a positive externality and so we should encourage it. But that's a special case.

[Hauldren Collider]

Think carefully about my position on this and what I do for a living. That might be instructive to why I find your stance a bit nuts.

Sorry, I don't find it instructive at all. My uncle is also a pediatrician and he agrees with my thoughts on insurance 100%. You're going to have to do better than this.

And before anyone suggests he's a pediatrician for the "richy mcriches", he's not--he's smack dab in the middle of St. Louis.

[Guynemer]

Sorry, I don't find it instructive at all. My uncle is also a pediatrician and he agrees with my thoughts on insurance 100%. You're going to have to do better than this.

And before anyone suggests he's a pediatrician for the "richy mcriches", he's not--he's smack dab in the middle of St. Louis.

My point is the vast majority of patients that I see could not afford to see a doctor if they didn't have Medicaid. Period. Not for preventative care, not for acute care. Not for vaccines, not for their asthma or bronchiolitis or acute otitis media or gastroenteritis or growth failure or for any reason.