Changing Carriers
I have to sign up for health insurance this week, and as my buddy Ly was lamenting the high rates, it made me wonder what could be done to solve the high premiums we have to pay?
The problem isn’t the health system, though - at least it isn’t the only problem. A large part of why premiums have gone up is because of legitimate and not-so-legitimate lawsuits. Insurance companies have to raise rates so that they have enough cash on hand to pay out when someone dumps hot coffee in their lap and sues McDonald’s for not telling her it was “hot.”
Or my favorite is kids suing a company because the cigarettes they sell killed their parents. I’m pretty sure if you have half a brain these days you can figure out that cigarettes cause cancer - smokers accept the risk and believe that they can beat the odds. When they lose that gamble, their kids get rich? Why does the company, who warned the consumer of the risks, take a beating?
Now don’t get me wrong, there are legitimate lawsuits, and I wouldn’t want to lose our ability to sue to right a wrong, but there needs to be some kind of limits placed - perhaps on the punitive damages? I don’t know the solution, but I do know we’ve got a problem.
One solution that’s doomed to fail, however, is global healthcare. Look at Canada and Switzerland. Sure they have their healthcare provided as part of the taxes they pay to their governments, but the quality of care is not even close to what we’d consider “acceptable” much less excellent. And the Swiss are paying something like 50% of their income in taxes to support this?
As flawed as our system is, I think I’ll keep it. Hopefully we can get some limits on lawyers bringing frivolous cases to court - maybe they should pay the bills for the court and court staff if they lose? That would make thing interesting…