Kindred Spirits and Health Costs
I spoke with a kindred spirit today. She and I have a mutual client, and we both have similar jobs with different companies: financial counseling. It’s nice, being able to talk for an hour with someone in the same field with similar perspective. While some might think it was a waste of time and resources, I think the time was well spent.
It’s amazing how people look at their finances and don’t realize how much thay can do to save money. I mean, something so simple as using coupons and buying generics when grocery shopping can save people a good amount of money. Looking at gasoline not as “I put $15 into my gas tank every 3 days” but realizing that it is the same thing to say “I spend $150 a month on gasoline on average”. Then, when you add the SUV that sucks $50 a week, gasoline winds up being a $350 a month bill for a couple struggling to raise a family of 4. Add in the $150 a week for daycare. Then add onto that the fifty dollar phone bill which is unnecessary because they have cable and cell phones, the $300 a month they spend on gas/electric because the house isn’t properly insulated, the $1200 a month on credit cards because they don’t know how to manage credit, the $700 in car payents because they must have the new vehicles, etc. etc. etc. and you can see why people get jacked up and need to file bankruptcy or get credit counseling. It’s terrible.
The worst thing is, though, the health system in this country. The #1 reason people file bankruptcy is not because they don’t know how to manage credit, it’s because they have something medically catastrophic happen, and it ruins them financially. It’s the bigest reason peopple fall behind on their mortgages, as well, although unemployment is a close second there.
Think about this, though: I spend about $90 a month out of my gross pay for health-related insurance. I realize that figure is a little high, but I would rather have the insurance than not. So, as a guess, let’s say the average person in the USA spends $50 a month on insurance thorugh payroll deductions. I reduced the figure so much, because I realize that a family of four will not pay $90 a month per person as you don’t have to pay the full amount if you have more than one person being insured. Anyway, there are about 50 million uninsured Americans, which means that there are about 225 million insured Americans. Multiplying these figures together results in $11.5 BILLION in payments to insurance companies for healthcare EACH MONTH. This doesn’t include corporate contributions, either. Add in deductibles, prescription costs, and it’s easy to see why in the US, 2004 health care spending was $1.9 TRILLION, equaling 16% of the U.S. GDP.
Is it any wonder why we do not have universal health care in this country? How much would the insurance companies stand to lose if we did get that? How much money could we as individuals save if we had universal health care? When you take into consideration that Aetna, who in 2005 had $1,634,500,000 in profits, Cigna with $1,625,000,000 . . . need I go on?
Look at it this way: the US spends more money per person on health care than any other country in the world, about $5,300 per person, per year. By comparison, Switzerland spends about $3,500, Japan $2,000, Canada $1,800 and Turkey as little as $446 per person each year. One would think that for that kind of money, we would have the best health care in the world, everyone would be insured, and no one would have to worry about bankruptcy because they slipped on a wet floor at work and hurt their back. The problem is we don’t, and if we don’t do something about this soon, by 2011, health care costs will double in the US to almost $11,000 per person.
Some people try to say that we have costs this high due to medical malpractice suits. No, it’s because of the fucked-up system we have where we have to pay out of our paycheck, our employer has to contriubute, and then we have to pay out of pocket to have a procedure done. That’s IF it is covered by insurance. If it isn’t: tough shit. As the saying goes: “Pay up, bitch!”
And we don’t even get to choose our insurance, either: our employer does. You can’t compare and contrast, and choose between companies who may or may not offer what you personally need and can afford. So, there’s no real competition between companies, and they get to set rates as they like rather than the people using their services influencing the rates.
And here I am going off on something and getting my blood pressure up, when all I wanted to do was talk about a pleasant conversation I had with someone at work today. What a meander that was.
