January 28, 2010
The Perfect Prescription for Fixing Health Care
Now that the debate has been sidelined with a loud message delivered by the people of Massachusetts and heard across the United States, it is time to get back to basics on health insurance and health care. There are certain facts about life that after raising four kids, and being married for 33 years, I have learned whether I wanted to or not. The first is that in the end, most people’s success in life comes down to personal responsibility, self discipline, and hard work. No matter what I have attempted, there does not seem to be a substitute for these three character building attributes. This applies to diet, exercise, saving or just plain hard work, it’s what makes the world go round.
When the economy is growing and there is lots of money to go around society will put up with certain behavior. When things get tight these behaviors are not accepted. This seems to be where we are now in the health insurance debate. Society is expecting people to be responsible. Society expects reform that is based on controlling cost and has a prescribed dose of personal responsibility in it, something that if we could bottle it up and sell it would be the perfect prescription for fixing health care.
The Health Insurance Guy
Steven Courlang said,
January 28, 2010 at 11:40 pm
I agree with Personal Resposibility. One of the major costs of Health Care Insurance is “Lifestyle Choices” (obesity, alcohol, smoking, etc.) Why isn’t there a premium incentive to reward people who take care of their health? (There is in all other types of insurance: auto, life, ltd, etc.) Why should two employees of the same age – one who takes care of their health and the other one an overweight smoker have the same premiums?
To help stop the rising cost of healthcare we need real incentives in the system that reward people to take care of their health.