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"C" is correct. Insurance was design to cover
serious illnesses. Businesses started providing it for their employees and
the deductibles started getting lower and lower and the paperwork from
claims filed started getting higher and higher and faster than you can say "tort
reform", the insurance claims business got outsourced to HMO's.
Forbes magazine started an experiment about a
decade ago. They told their employees that each employee who didn't file
any health insurance claims for the year would get $2000 cash at the end of the
year. The company loved it because it cut their paperwork by some ungodly
amount. The employees liked it because they got a big check at the end of
the year and still had catastrophic coverage. I don't know if they still
do it.
Kent Rollins
----- Original Message -----
From: <A
title=hehohop@xxxxxxx href="">Howard Hopkins
To: <A title=realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
href="">realtraders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2004 10:16 PM
Subject: RE: healthcare was RE: [RT] sp500/nasdaq top
<SPAN
>Earl and all <SPAN
class=SpellE>RTs,
<SPAN
>
<SPAN
>First, the threads of
the last week have created the most chatter I’ve seen in this group for over a
year. I don’t know if that has in
deep meaning of market direction but I think it’s good for <SPAN
class=GramE>all of
us.
<SPAN
>
<SPAN
>Second, if Earl is
writing or has written a book I want to<SPAN
> know about it .<SPAN
> Please post title <SPAN
class=GramE>and where it can
be purchased!?
<SPAN
>
<SPAN
>Third, Earl mentioned
the often quoted statistic of 40% of the population being uninsured. <SPAN
> I have no idea if this number is correct
but I do have a couple of comments:
<P class=MsoNormal
><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
><SPAN
>a)<SPAN
>
<FONT face=Arial color=navy
size=2>I was in
the restaurant business for over 16 years (I needed an income for my trading
habit!). According to <A
href="">http://www.restaurant.org/research/forecast.cfm
, there are 12 million people in the
<FONT face=Arial color=navy
size=2><SPAN
>US<FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
> employed in the food
service industry. Very few
corporate restaurant chains and fewer private restaurants provide health
insurance due to the transitory nature of the staff, cost/hassle of
administration of a health plan, and the cost of the insurance itself.<SPAN
> Most servers and bartenders make ample
cash to pay for private health insurance.
As one of those people, I made an economic choice and went without health
insurance until I was 38 years at which point I got married and was covered by
my wife’s insurance. Before that
time I and most of my co-workers could have paid for coverage but instead chose
to have digital cable tv, to go out to dinner
countless times a month, to drive a newer model car, etc…<SPAN
> Many of the “40%” without coverage could
have coverage if they sacrificed some of today’s
“necessities”.
<P class=MsoNormal
><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
><SPAN
>b)<SPAN
>
<FONT face=Arial color=navy
size=2>As Earl
mentioned we already have universal healthcare. <SPAN
> A female server once told me not to waste
my money on health insurance because “…emergency rooms have to treat you.<SPAN
> I go to the hospital all the time and
don’t pay for shit.”
<P class=MsoNormal
><FONT
face=Arial color=navy size=2><SPAN
><SPAN
>c)<SPAN
>
<FONT face=Arial color=navy
size=2>Insurance
was created to “protect against unexpected catastrophic loss”.<SPAN
> Today’s insurance is expected to treat
any and all medical problems not just catastrophic losses. <SPAN
> I’m betting if minimum deductibles were
raised to $5,000 with no co-insurance than people would go to the doctors a lot
less frequently! And Econ 100
teaches that less demand = lower prices…. For services rendered and insurance
itself.
<SPAN
>
<SPAN
>Just a few thoughts /
comments.<SPAN
><SPAN
>
<SPAN
>
<SPAN
>Howard
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