Xmastime Genius from 15 Years Ago Today #XOTD2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A Modest Proposal

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?