Give Up Health Insurance?
My husband and I work for ourselves and purchase our health insurance through my business. As our premiums have soared, we have pared back coverage – no prescription coverage, no maternity, dental checkups only; higher co-pays, deductibles, and annual out-of-pocket maximums.
My renewal arrived last week. The premium was up another 20 percent year over year, and has risen 70 percent in the last six years – although we’ve never had a major claim. The monthly cost is almost equal to my mortgage payment. I’m seriously wondering if it’s worth it.
A new study sponsored by Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University finds medical bills are behind 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, and more than 75 percent of bankrupt families had health insurance. In a statement, Dr. David Himmelman of Harvard said: “Unless you’re Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy. For middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection.”
The share of bankruptcies attributable to medical problems rose by 50 percent from 2001 to 2007, the researchers found. Most of the medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations.
As health care reform moves ahead in Congress, I hope our elected officials understand this: Millions of people – the lucky ones who actually have insurance – have what Harvard Law School’s Elizabeth Warren has called “faux health insurance.” That is, we may be better off spending those premium payments on a personal trainer and a nutritionist, because we may end up bankrupt anyway if we get sick. (Or instead of the trainer, put the premiums into the bank, and if you do get sick, use the money to go overseas and explore the joys of medical tourism.)
It seems obvious that you can’t just expand the current, for-profit private insurance system so everyone can purchase insurance, because the private system has gigantic holes in the safety net it purports to provide. You have to have a non-profit option where the primary mission is to provide basic, affordable health care. The Democrats propose that the government offer that alternative; the Republicans say businesses, in response, would drop their current coverage like hotcakes and tell employees to check out the government plan.
They’re right; I would like nothing better than to drop my business’s costly health insurance in favor of a cost-effective alternative — one where there is some relationship between what I pay and how well I take care of myself. At minimum the health care system should reward behavior – no smoking, good nutrition, exercising – because behavior can play a critical role in reducing the nation’s health care costs. Until reform comes, though, I’m just trying to figure out how to shift my budget to cover my higher premiums.
How has the rising cost of health care affected you? What are you doing to manage your costs? What would you like to see Congress do on health care reform? You can comment here or email me at laura at laurarowley.com.
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