So I don’t have health insurance. It is a casino game where the house bets that you are going to be just fine and you are betting that everything is going to suck.
Generally, when I go to the doctor, I decide when I need help and I choose the doctor and I pay for it. My parents have given me grief about this for years. I think they believe that, if I needed a new pancreas or something, I would call them and ask for help. This is not the case, but perhaps they do not know it. A few weeks ago, I finally relented and said I would look at the special insurance my mother had access to. They looked over the plan and were like wow this looks like a terrible deal. Sigh.
The thing about insurance is that you have to convince someone else that your pain is real. Then they decide what sort of doctor could best treat you. Then a series of complex kickbacks and white male western medical establishment biases determine who you get referred to. If you end up at an expensive expert, then your insurance may not cover it, or may not cover all of it. If you need nonwestern care, your insurance may not cover it. If you need chiropractic or dental or eyeglasses, your insurance may not cover it.
So I got rear-ended at a light, when emergency vehicles were going through the intersection, by a guy who was not even braking when he hit me. Happily, my car is large and sturdy and his car was pretty crushed, but mine only needs a new bumper. I was not horribly disabled or anything, but my ability to sit up at the computer has been limited for the past month and I have been avoiding doing strenuous activities such as working out or photo shoots. It has been unpleasant and I’ve missed work.
But I didn’t ask the jerk who hit me’s insurance company Travelers to do anything but pay my car repair and doctors bills. More than a month later, they offered to settle for less than half my car repair and Town Car bumpers are expensive and they offered to cover less than a quarter of my medical bills and they are not returning my calls.
I am a libertarian in most of my political views, but I believe insurance should be government-run or abolished. I am appalled at the idea that private companies make money by promising to take care of people in their time of need and then avoiding doing so. Their profits are in avoiding doing what they are paid to do. Insurance companies are evil.