A STEP FARTHER

    Still working on the health-care issue in my rather limited mental capacity. See if this clicks at all.
Insurance is, (originally anyway), based on risk. The more risk the insurance company takes on, the higher the premium.
    The "risk" that someone with an insurance policy will get the flu, or a cold, or bronchitis, or an inner-ear infection, or etc. etc. is 100%. This means that the insurance company, before any other calculation, must account for the cost of providing services for these common illnesses. To provide services for these common issues that virtually every person will need, the insurance company relies on internal and external bureaucracies. These layers of red tape are required to oversee the system and verify needs, etc. These expenses are much inflated at the insurance company level over what they would be at the individual level.
    A visit to a direct care doctor for an illness and the subsequent treatment is exponentially more efficient and effective than going through the insurance company's bureaucratic environment.
    Since I have retired, I have engaged in a contract with a direct care physician and have a small sample of personal experience to draw from. I make a monthly payment for his services and then pay as I go for additional items. A recent blood work-up and an inquiry into prescriptions I need for eye drops revealed an incredibly low cost on both accounts. The blood test was around 20 bucks and one of the eye drops was about a tenth of what I'd been paying even with prescription coverage on my old plan. Additionally, I can call him 24/7 and know that I will get a doctor on the phone. I can email, text or use the handy on-line app they provide. I then purchased a policy to cover any major medical issues I may encounter and the combined costs of both are significantly less, (about half), of my previous employer-provided coverage. Yes, there are still questions and scenarios that may reveal issues with this set-up, but it's the kind of effort I expect from a free society. A society, a citizenry, that is losing freedoms by the day and will quickly lose much ground in this regard if we let the government seize control of our health-care system. (now, back to our regularly scheduled discussion).
    With a direct care model in place, (or something similar), the insurance company's would be free to return to their more appropriate place in the system and provide, true, risk-based coverage for people. This would see a dramatic drop in costs because the 100% risk factor will be replaced by a much lower factor and the common, predictable illnesses will be covered by the much more effective and direct approach offered by the doctor-patient contract mentioned above. A significant outcome with this arrangement is the person's more direct involvement in his health-care services and costs. The individual replaces the incredibly ineffective bureaucracy the insurance companies had previously relied on.
    I don't have a solution to our complex medical insurance situation here in the US, but doesn't it seem incumbent to consider some viable alternatives? This model has been around for many years and is available in all but 2 states as of this writing. If you were wondering how you can bring back a more free society, exercising some initiative and individual responsibility is one way. Please consider taking your health-care back from the government before it's too late.
    Thanks and have a nice day.

Rights and Lefts

OK, ready, begin. I'm about to take a stab at a difficult issue to see if I can bring some resolution to my beliefs. It seems the word "right" is being used and abused these days. Similarly, I would say a significant part of our language has been used and abused and rights, seems to be the most recent fatality. There are plenty of bumper sticker phrases to go around here like, "your rights stop at the end of my nose" for instance. I suppose there is some truth to be gleaned from that phrase but plenty of room there, too, to move away from what a right is. In my considering of this subject I've concluded that a true "right" is an intrinsic ingredient in our existence. Again, I'm not pretending to be an expert, simply trying to express my understanding in an articulate manner. And my understanding is that a right is at the foundation of being human. A right to life would seem a good place to start. I believe that simply by being human we have a right to expect that other humans will not arbitrarily take our life. This "right" has been violated at many points in history and is yet today. I do not believe that people have a right to food. I believe they have a right to pursue an enterprise which would result in obtaining food. I believe they have the right to expect that someone, or some entity, will not impede their acquiring food. That is to say, to forceably intervene to keep one from receiving food. I know I'm opening a lot of ground here and the discussions could be endless as to the exact interpretation of the words I'm using. However, what I am trying to counter is the idea that a right includes delivery. At this point in the United States, the "right" to food will quickly come to mean I can sit in front of my flat-screen HD tv and expect a pizza every 4 or 5 hours. I know that is an exaggeration but I would submit that a large percent of our social security budget goes to what would have been considered an exaggeration to those who first envisioned it. Yes, healthcare is the issue that has brought this discussion to my mind and I submit to you that healthcare is not a right. If it is then we need to start with 3rd world countries and work our way back to the richest nation this world has ever known. A right, I believe, runs deep in our lives, deeper than a product of this world if you will. I think the richest country in the world could reasonably be expected to make healthcare affordable for all who want it but I do not believe it to be a right and there are so many better options than giving the government even more control of our lives and destroying the incentive to attract the best talent to the medical field. I know lots of people die without healthcare. I also know many more die with it. Is poor or non-existent healthcare one reason people die? Yes. And some of those people could easily afford healthcare but simply choose not to purchase it. Do people with good healthcare die because they eat too much, or the wrong kinds of food against their doctors suggestion? Yes. And I would submit to you that if the government gets control of healthcare they will effectively have control over things you choose to eat, activities you engage in, and any other choice that could cause you to be a burden to society. After all, you are spending societies money when you make bad choices, therefore, society, (or the political class more specifically), will dictate much of your life. This is not what I want. It is what I believe is coming.
Well, since I started this picture thing guess I'll stick with it. No real reason it needs to directly tie in with the blog I suppose.