Health Insurance

I haven't posted anything political on here, and I don't know if I really should (maybe Amy will delete it). But the McCain/Palin health insurance plan has upset me so much that I felt the need to express my thoughts. McCain's plan is to have everyone go out on the open individual market and purchase health insurance. In return we would all get a $5,000 tax credit. Sounds good at first, but ...

The problem with McCain's plain is that it is already so difficult to fight with insurance companies even if you have a large company behind you. Going at insurance companies alone would be miserable. In addition, the second you need your insurance (you get cancer, diabetes, etc.) you are likely to get dropped by the insurance company.

Health insurance is so different from any other type of insurance. To share risk one has to purchase insurance prior to anyone knowing about all of the individual risk or the insurance has to be purchased in a relatively random pool of people. The individual can't know the risks while the insurance company does not because then only sick people will buy insurance. On the other hand, if insurance companies do know the risk, they will only insure healthy individuals. With auto insurance, home insurance, life insurance, etc. this is not a huge issue because they involve one time type events and after a one time event things can change. For example, I have a fire destroy my house. The insurance company pays me and then that's it. I may have to pay higher insurance going forward, but there is still some random element associated with the future costs. Thus, I can still purchase insurance. I also still have options like selling the house and moving. With health insurance, if I have diabetes, I have it for life. I will never ever be insurable on the individual market. If someone does insure me, it will essentially be a monthly installment plan on my healthcare expenses not insurance.

Perhaps you're thinking that we will have government insurance pools for these people. That sounds good but the problem is that you and I will all get stuck paying for the people that are the sickest through our taxes while the health insurance companies make a ton because they only insure the healthy. If one could purchase a lifetime health insurance policy, this would solve the problem. In my mind it is the only way individual insurance could work. This of course is ludicrous because one can't purchase and pay for health insurance prior to being born.

I've come to the conclusion that the only way to solve the adverse selection problem with health insurance is to have a nationalized health insurance program. You might be thinking about the moral hazard problem, people abusing the system because they don't bear any of the direct costs themselves. Well, we already have that problem and it's unlikely to go away. The only thing I can think of to solve this is perhaps a national health care program that requires individuals to pay the marginal costs of the healthcare they receive. This could be based on income, so as to not discriminate.

Nationalized health insurance is a type of social insurance where everyone is essentially insured prior to entering the world. Will it be perfect, probably not, but it sure beats McCain's plan. I would say the current system is better than John McCain's plan. At least under the current employer plan there is a pool that can share the risk. Under McCain's plan there is no risk sharing. McCain's plan would take the insurance out of health insurance. Of course, these are just the economic implications. Don't get me started on the moral elements of this debate.

I'm sure most who read our blog will completely disagree with me because they are staunch Republicans, but I'm sure Amy will be proud. I just had to say this because it has really been bugging me.

Mother of the year

Exhibit 1:

Off to the races

I got my hopes up.  I told myself I wouldn't do it, but I did.  I've been sidelined from running for about four months by a serious injury (bilateral tibia stress fractures).  I started running again slowly. The Missouri weather wasn't cooperating at first (humid doesn't even begin to describe the hot, sticky, disgustingly heavy air I had to breath at 6 a.m.), but as the weather improved my running improved.  After a couple of months I thought I was back.  I started researching new races, new training strategies and, of course, new running gear.  I even ran a 5k a couple of weekends ago. But then a few days ago I started feeling that pain again.  That sharp stabbing pain in my shin.  I stopped running and tried again the next day.  No doubt about it, the stress fractures are back! More accurately, they never healed.  I'm frustrated about it, but there is nothing I can do.   

About that 5k...let me share a moment.  One of those moments where you laugh at yourself for your foolishness.  And then laugh some more.  I mentioned to some women in the ward that I was running a race sponsored by my neighborhood association.  One woman, who I'm getting to know pretty well, lives just two miles away and said she wanted to run it with me.  I told Chad the night before the race, "I hope _____ doesn't think I'm going to run with her the entire race.  I'm hoping to beat my last 5k time and I don't want to feel like I have to hold anything back on such a short race.  Do you think she will mind?"  Looking back, had I employed just a little common sense I wouldn't have feared.  This woman is at least five years younger than me, at least thirty pounds lighter, and at least four inches taller.  As we walked to the race together she casually mentioned that she use to run track in high school but she hasn't run any races since, though she does go to the gym everyday.  I gave her my little "we're just going to run our own race, right?" in a tactful way and she totally agreed.  Well, we started off together.  Against everything I've learned I started out REALLY FAST.  But so did she.  When I turned the first corner I looked at my watch and it said I was running a 6:15 mile.  What?!?!?  I didn't think I could run that fast ever!.  Problem is, I really can't.  After running the first mile under 7:30 my jets were spent.  And I hadn't seen my friend since that first corner.  I kept looking for her on the side of the road, or maybe I'd passed her and just hadn't seen her?  Well, when I crossed the finish line in exactly the same time I ran a 5K over a year ago, she was sitting with her husband and Chad looking calm and relaxed.  "What happened?" I asked.  "I just ran as hard as I could!  I was in second place for a while, but I ended up in seventh."  So matter of fact.  What?!?!?  Who just runs a race and comes in seventh?  I think she ran in under 22 minutes.  Crazy.  When I looked at Chad I just laughed and confessed to her the conversation I'd had with him the night before. Oh, the vanity.  Me,  worrying about being faster than someone!  It was good for a laugh.  

The same weekend I ran the 5k we attended the St. Louis Hot Air Balloon "Glow."  The night before the annual Hot Air Balloon Race at Forest Park (the biggest park in St. Louis and 50% bigger than Central Park) you can go see the balloons tied to the ground and firing their burners. In our "we just moved here from Ann Arbor population 100,000" attitude, we didn't prepare the magnitude of the event.  We barely, barely found a parking space, walked about 1.5 miles, and then entered a zone that was part carnival, part picnic, part circus.   There were people everywhere!  In fact, we planned to meet some friends there but we couldn't make it happen.  It was pretty dark (until the whistle was blown and all of the balloons fired their burners) and our cell phone wasn't working (I think everything was jammed because all of humanity was there).  Jack was less impressed with the "big balloons" than we imagined.  As a lover of balloons generally we thought he would be thrilled, but the chaos and the big loud hissing flames didn't seem to invoke the memory of the little balloons he likes to toss around at home.  One nice woman did let him hold one of the ropes that keeps the balloons steady.  He loved that.  He could even make the balloon move a little when he really tugged hard.  We watched the fireworks display as we walked to the car because Jack was pooped and we didn't want to fight the THOUSANDS of cars lining the park.  We'll go back next year, but we'll be more prepared.  We're starting to realize that we live in a city, a big city!  And we love it.