Airline Insurance

Some dude via Sully writes about the preposterousness of the airlines being run like our present healthcare system. While the idea is of course a joke, it is worth noting that the difference between "healthcare" and "health coverage" is the same as "flying to Eugene safely" and "being guaranteed a chance to get on a plane to Eugene." More importantly, obviously, right now you are thinking "hasn't Xmastime crossed these streams already? Twice? Like HERE:

The government refuses to even dream of paying our health insurance. But it loves to bail out the airlines. Why not combine the two? Why not have flying insurance – say you pay $50/month or whatever, and you can fly all you want. Within the US, of course. That way the government can keep the big corporate airlines afloat, which it loves to do, and we can fly around all we want without having to worry about paying $7 for a pillow the size of my liver. Hey, it's either that or pay all the money to New Orleans like we promised, it's up to you. If I hadn't already blocked out the next 15 minutes for trying to figure out which Kardashian sister I'd rather bang out (not including Khlozilla of course), I'd figure out how this would actually work in such a way as to keep jobs inside the country instead of exporting them all. But like I said, I'm busy.

And HERE:

Once something happens it becomes inevitable; one of these instances seems to be in the fact that health insurance is so readily accepted as a "necessary evil" as it is today. Why? Yeah, I know being a doctor is an amazing thing and he/she should be compensated very well for having learned something that is incredibly difficult, but so is flying a plane. How come if a doctor says he can save our life we are more than happy to pay whatever amount the insurance company says, we will empty our life savings, we will spend 50 years giving up part of our paycheck, every week, NO MATTER WHAT - yet we don't give up a part of our paycheck every week of our working lives in the event that someday we will hafta board a plane and put our lives into the hands of the unique skills of an airline pilot, do we? You wanna fly from NYC to Paris it's $500; you want a sprained ankle treated it's $4,000? REEEEally?

I can't cook a 5-star meal - why am I not paying a small fee every week to offset the cost should I one day go to a restaurant wherein the chef is the greatest chef in the world?

I can't dunk a basketball or turn a double play, shouldn't a chunk of my weekly check be going to make sure that these outrageously talented athletes can keep doing their thing, and that I might someday be able to go see them?

I'm a huge proponent of healthcare AND health coverage reform - but maybe the question I should be asking myself is why does health insurance exist at all? How come like weddings and college, medicine is allowed to be some egregiously paid expense that we all take for granted as being "more than we can afford, but fuck it"? Hell, out of the three, medicine is the only one that is a science, whose worth can therefore be measured. If the "free market" is as amazing as everybody says it is, shouldn't I be able to go to the guy who says he can set my broken arm for the best price without having to pre-pay for years, even if i don't use it, as I would an english muffin?