Why can't Health Insurance be more like Auto Insurance?

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In addition to what Stoo said, health care insurance is exactly like car insurance. Both premiums are predicated on projected usage and the cost of that usage. You may be getting mail suggesting that insurance companies can save you money, but if you read the fine print, the projected savings occurs among those switching carriers, not everyone. If you call and get a quote and the quote is higher, you won't switch, so you are not "moving the needle" (in other words, the average is skewed to only positive experiences).

Actuarily speaking, the main problem with health care is that not everyone has coverage which results in teh fact that people without coverage (or very limited coverage) do not have a primary care physician, so they put off visiting their doctor which allows illnesses to get more serious (i.e., pneumonia instead of a bad cold) which eventually gets bad enough to seek care. Because they do not have insurance, they then go to an ER which is the most expensive care in the world no matter what you are treated for. This is like someone getting car insurance after an accident except to fix the problem, you replace the whole car instead of fixing the dent - this drives up costs. A single payer system would expand the insurance pool, spread costs over a larger audience (which lowers costs), increase treatment of chronic diseases and conditions (which lowers long term costs and increases employee productivity and corporate profits), and ultimately lowers costs which makes insurance cheaper. Note that some research in the mid 1990s suggested that just by having one claims form, doctors offices could save up to 10% of overhead which of course is paid for by the patients.

Do you always believe every corporate tagline you read?

Clearly they're not saving that money over everyone else - the prices are basically what they are. And auto insurance rather regularly screws their customers over as well - also a common tagline.

Insurance companies are not in the business of paying more out to customers than they receive in premiums. They will say no to anything they can say no to under contract.

Health insurance is no different, the service being insured is more expensive, and the demand profile is hardly the same. You can choose to spend a million dollars on a car, or not. You can also choose not to have a car, negating the need for insurance at all.

No one chooses to have cancer. You just do, or not, and there's not much you can do about it either way. Even the most health-conscious people get it, and even those who smoke two packs a day and eat horribly don't. Shît happens - and when it does, it's easy to rack up a huge, impossible to pay bill that no health savings account or other magical solution could ever pay for.

And you can't just opt out because you're indestructible, because you're not (and anyone stupid enough to believe they are should be forced to pay 100% for all costs, and have that debt follow them to their grave, being first in line for any assets of the estate, because they're idiots.)

Don't like the horrible state of American health insurance? Ditch Obamacare in favor of single payer, non-profit, public insurance. In Canada, you're just covered. It's not tied to employment, because it's not like only employed people get sick. There are no premiums. There are no deductibles or co-pays. There's no lifetime cap. There's no in- or out-plan nonsense, and few fights with the public insurer to get coverage. Yes, you pay a bit more in taxes, but in return you get a system that's far cheaper per capita in which everyone's covered with far fewer headaches.

The facilities aren't luxury hotels, there are wait lists for non-critical procedures, and like any insurance plan, not everything is covered, which means some experimental treatments are not covered which pisses some people off. But its not like the big heath insurers cover those either. No one stays in business writing blank cheques. And you don't actually *need* an MRI right this moment. If you do here, you get one - if you don't really *need* it, you wait your turn. Or you can go across the border and pay out of pocket for same-day service, but that's you being impatient more than anything (and no, don't bring back the bill so I can cover it in my tax bill - feel impatient, take a Xanax and chill the fûck out, don't arrange luxury care in a panic attack and expect me to pay for it.)

The difference is that auto insurance only pays for what happens in the future. It does not pay to treat any injuries that already happened or to fix any damage that already happened.

Health insurance has to pay for future treatment of injuries that already happened and illnesses that are already happening.

I might suggest you to visit this internet site where onel can compare rates from different companies: http://protectionquotes.net/index.html?src=5YAojmq...

RE :Why can't Health Insurance be more like Auto Insurance?

I have literally dozens of auto insurance companies (Geico, AllState, Amica, State Farm, etc.) sending me letters in the mail every month about how they can save me HUNDREDS of dollars a year. Very tight and aggressive competition, it would appear. So why can't we have this kind of thing for Health Insurance? What's the diff? I don't get it.

Follow 8 answers

don't be fooled by their letters, they can't save you money other than charging less and to do that they would offer you less coverage

Great question! There should be more choices. It makes no sense.