Has Your Health Insurance Been Cancelled by Obama?

[SlowwHand]

Sometimes you're lucid, but most of the time you're not.

[Sava]

I do it out of love, Slowwypoo.

[Hauldren Collider]

I think he's serious, guys.

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.

[Sava]

Insurance shouldn't exist. Period. It's useless and adds inefficiency to the system. It's an entire industry dedicated to raising costs for the sake of profit.

[regexcellent]

Are you talking about the general concept of insurance, that a risk-distributing financial instrument, or just medical insurance?

[Hauldren Collider]

Insurance shouldn't exist. Period. It's useless and adds inefficiency to the system. It's an entire industry dedicated to raising costs for the sake of profit.

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.

[Imran Siddiqui]

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

Uh no. Guy is fine with unconventional things if they seem to make sense (take a look at his idea for a college football playoff which started 5 years ago). He cast things as ridiculous because, quite simply, he thinks they are ridiculous and make little to no sense to him.

(of course its not hard to figure out why he would consider this particular view ridiculous - economically isn't the only way people can be "better off". Doctors would much rather have everyone take preventative care to be healthier and have less need for catastrophic care, and making everyone pay out of pocket for such care would reduce the amount of people who would actually go for preventative care, esp among the poorer sections of society)

[DinoDoc]

(of course its not hard to figure out why he would consider this particular view ridiculous - economically isn't the only way people can be "better off". Doctors would much rather have everyone take preventative care to be healthier and have less need for catastrophic care, and making everyone pay out of pocket for such care would reduce the amount of people who would actually go for preventative care, esp among the poorer sections of society)

http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/05/29/M...=9711369854160

[Hauldren Collider]

Imran's a moron.

Imran, they're going to have to pay for that one way or another, and if it isn't an actual risk, you're just paying the insurance company to pay for you. You're not ****ing saving any money. Christ, are you too stupid to understand that?

Anyway, removing insurance from the equation of preventative care can only reduce costs, which is the only way to encourage the poor to actually do it. If that isn't enough, well, you can't force people to take care of their bodies, and you shouldn't try either.

[Imran Siddiqui]

http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/05/29/M...=9711369854160

Fantastic, you found a doctor who can cut out the insurance companies and deal directly with his patients. Btw, what does that have to do with the amount of folks who would get preventative care (he did lose a few hundred of his patients the article says)?

[Hauldren Collider]

Presumably they found another doctor willing to take insurance...

This doctor's a smart guy. He's ahead of the curve. I expect more clinics like his, such that we have segregated high-frequency low-cost care (that would not be covered by true insurance) and low-frequency high-cost care (which would). Hopefully what will come out of this law is a series of concessions by the democrats aimed at saving the insurance industry they've ruined which end up turning it into what it should have been from the beginning, a true insurance system with everyone on "high deductible" plans based on their PERSONAL risk preference

[Imran Siddiqui]

Imran, they're going to have to pay for that one way or another, and if it isn't an actual risk, you're just paying the insurance company to pay for you. You're not ****ing saving any money.

The amusing part is how much you completely missed the point.

Btw, Guy is going to laugh at you again.

[Hauldren Collider]

I didn't miss the god damn point, you ****ing ignoramus. There is no meaningful discussion about this outside of cost. Read the rest of the post, idiot.

You're the one who missed the point. You want insurance to cover preventative care for the poor. Great. Okay. So who's going to pay for that? The same people who buy the insurance. What I am suggesting would lower the cost of preventative care, MAKING IT MORE LIKELY THAT PEOPLE WILL GET IT. It is in fact THE ONLY WAY TO DO THAT.

The only reason for insurance to pay for it is some mistaken belief that the insurance company is the one footing the bill. Only a ****** who doesn't understand NO FREE LUNCHES would think that. AKA you.

[Imran Siddiqui]

There is no meaningful discussion about this outside of cost.

Now you are trying to win awards for missing the point.

[Hauldren Collider]

Now you are trying to win awards for missing the point.

And you're trying to win awards for selective quotation, Ben Kenobi. I'm done discussing this with you. Go drink your kool aid.