Do We Need Health Insurance?
There is an undeniable trend throughout the world. Population growth and increased longevity are placing unbearable demands on state run medical institutions and the finances needed to fund them. Basic level care provided by the governments of developed nations are funded through employee contributions. But the simple truth is that these contributions are not sufficient to fund medical care for all people under all circumstances. The whole system is reaching breaking point.
Adding to this crisis is the manner in which the suppliers of treatments and drugs are being fiercely protective of their medical technology. The development of drugs is a long and comprehensive process of trials and tests before the product is made available to the public. This is an expensive process for pharmaceutical companies and just like the making of a movie, some are blockbuster hits but most are forgotten failures. Since so few succeed to make it into general usage, the pharmaceutical companies have to make as much money as they can out of the ones that do succeed. Eventually cheaper generic versions of these drugs do appear but it takes decades before the patent rights expire for them to be produced in generic form.
Even if we are injured through no fault of our own the legal process for proving who was to blame and then recovering compensation from them for treatment is a incredibly long and tedious process. I know of a man who had his leg shattered when a car collided with him as he left a sporting event. After 4 years of treatment and recovering from this ordeal he still had not seen a penny in compensation from the incident.
If we travel abroad on vacation we don't think twice about needing travel insurance in case an unexpected event lands us in a foreign hospital bed. But at home many of us feel less concerned about injury and infection even though they are still a real and current occurrence all around us.
Private medical insurance isn't perfect. It's not the cure for every possible illness and injury. It can't be. It has to have limitations purely because of the vast scope of medical conditions that can befall us. And it's not cheap. In a way that's a good thing. If I needed a specialist operation, I wouldn't want a cheap surgeon working on me. I would want the most expensive surgeon I could get. Fixing a damaged body requires a different attitude to fixing something in the home.
Most of us live through a false sense of security with regards to our health. Because most of us start our lives young and healthy and full of vigor we take this granted. We become unaware of what is going to befall us at some point in our life. People who are ill and receiving care are generally kept out of the public view in hospitals or nursing homes. We don't see them in our daily lives, and because we don't see them, we under-estimate the chances of ourselves requiring treatment. But we will one day and suddenly the full realization of our mortal vulnerability can hit us hard. Sure, we can eat healthy food and exercise as we are told to, but even the fittest athletes require treatment for their injuries. I firmly believe there are lots of reasons as to why having some level of health insurance is a vital necessity these days. If you can get it through your employer then that's brilliant. If not, then you really should consider what is more important, a frivolous purchase such as a new TV, or paying for the unequivocal support of the medical profession. Medical emergencies don't just fill the plots of hospital soap dramas, they happen every minute of the day in real life too.
What Is In A Health Care Insurance Plan?
When we go into a hospital for treatment we fall into one of 3 categories. We are either an in-patient, an out-patient or a day patient. Being an inpatient is where we are being examined to figure out what is wrong with us. Being an out-patient is when we have treatment applied to our delicate bodies and we are recovering before being released. Day patients are for quicker treatments or scans.
The primary purpose of a health plan is to pay towards the costs of diagnosis, surgery, scans, treatments, drugs, tests and out-patient care. Hospitals use specialists trained in each particular field of injury and disease. So for example a pathologist is a doctor who specializes in the field of examining body tissue and blood samples. Health insurance will help pay for consultations from these medical specialists. There are also the costs of paying for artificial replacements such as hip and knee joints.
Outside of work done in a hospital there may well be many days of nursing care to follow. This may be either provided at home or in a nursing establishment. Then there are other peripheral costs such as transport to and from hospital and accommodation for visiting relatives. A health care insurance plan will usually offer general optical and dental tests and treatment as additional options.
Most of these services will be provided in privately run medical establishments, though you may find some specialized services can only be provided by visiting state run hospitals where the equipment is available. Being treated in a private hospital is really nice. I visited one once to have all of my wisdom teeth extracted. I got treated to a lovely private room of my own. Straight after the operation I was up in bed sipping soup and watching football on my own television. The surgeon I had was a genius. The next day he was off the other side of the world to repair someone's face after a horrific car accident.
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