time to get all preachy

ok, so here's my thoughts on the health care circus that's going on right now. contrary to what you might think, i'm not going to bash republicans or democrats. that's not my point. try this. think about it like you would with a pet.

i always assumed that dogs and cats get different medicine than we do. most people don't realize that they frequently get the exact same treatments and procedures that we do. pets get neutered and spayed, we get vasectomies and hysterectomies. if an animal has diabetes, they get the same insulin that we get, just in a smaller dose. if your dog has allergies, the vet will tell you to put half a pill of benedryl in his food. so why is our healthcare exponentially more expensive than for animals?

the answer is our own laziness and failure to do the math.

50 or 60 years ago, most medical treatment was paid for out of pocket by the consumer. doctors made house calls. insurance was seen as a way to avoid catastrophic events where the medical bills would ruin a person's finances. all the little stuff like doctor visits and pills were mostly paid out of pocket. and because of this, people paid attention to what things cost. there was economic pressure to keep prices down. but then we got lazy.

the idea of insurance paying for EVERYTHING appealed to us. it was the easy way out. instead of calculating whether the higher premium was worth it or not, we took the path of least resistance and just bought into it. and because of that, the economic pressure to keep prices down went away. think about it. when you go to a doctor, do you ask your doctor what everything costs? when he tells you to take a pill, is the first question out of your mouth how much it will be? no, that's an afterthought to be negotiated between drug and insurance companies. and since no one really cares how expensive the drugs and treatments are, the prices have skyrocketed over the years. do i blame the drug companies? do i blame the insurance companies? NO. i blame us. we let this happen by taking the easy road and not doing our homework.

now the price of healthcare has skyrocketed so high that it's impossible to cover even the medium size events without paying exorbitant premiums. we've dug ourselves into a hole that no one knows how to get out of.

don't believe me? let's get back to the dog thing. it costs me about $120 a year TOTAL to keep my dog healthy. shots, heartworm, regular checkup, etc... If i were to get the equivalent to that amount of care for myself, i'd be lucky if my share of the copay was that cheap. it sucks to have to shell out $120 at once, but i'd rather pay for exactly what i need than have another monthly premium for coverage i probably won't use. and now some vets are trying to do this. the banfield clinic at petsmart is selling animal health insurance. it's about $20 a month. if i were to get this, i would be paying $240 spread out over a year rather than $120 all at once. and get this, because people are buying into this, prices are already starting to go up. the banfield clinic charges more for procedures and tests than most local vets. and when it gets pricey, they suggest their puppy health insurance - what a deal!

but what about if your pet has a catastrophic event? well, i worked for a guy a few years ago who was rich and whose dog got cancer. he did everything possible to keep his dog alive for an extra year and a half before the dog died. he regularly sent the dog to one of the best vet hospitals in the country and had multiple chemo and other cancer treatments. in the end, this dog got the best medical care that was available in a time span that lasted a year and a half. and what was the final bill? roughly $20,000. yes, that's a lot of money. but if you consider what the same treatments would cost a person, it should have been at least ten times more expensive. my mom went through breast cancer a few years ago and i can personally account that the medical bills that our insurance had to cover were exponentially higher than that. and yes, $20k is still a lot of money, but that wouldn't ruin you and throw you into bankruptcy. and isn't that what health insurance is supposed to protect us from?

again, we're all in a hole so deep that nobody knows the answer. that's whyi'm not condemning either side of the debate going on right now. it's not an easy answer. but if i had to make an educated guess, i would say that the way to fix it starts with fixing the original problem - and that's personal responsibility.