DNA of relative indicts man, cuckolding ignored

Stormwalker bruen at coldrain.net
Tue Jul 8 11:49:40 PDT 2003


  Okay, I will make one last stab at showing why medical/health
  insurance is different from other forms of insurance, then, unless
  something really new appears, let it drop. I don't want to waste
  anyone's time and it was not that important to me in the first place.
  I have no love for any insurance provider. My attempt to understand
  does not imply approval.

  What I consider to be important and relevant, is the next 10 or so years
  where the engineering phase resulting from the mapping/sequencing of
  human genome will get into high gear. We will all be able to know
  more about each other than ever before and be able to manipulate the 
  building blocks of life. This will have a major impact on all of us.

  Now, for the insurance stuff. If I take out boat insurance and
  my boat sinks, I collect for the boat (assuming my policy was written
  that way and I did nothing to invalidate it). The parties
  involved are myself and the insurance company. If I take out life 
  insurance, when I die, my beneficiary collects from the insurance 
  company, only because I am dead and cannot collect myself. If my
  car is wrecked, I collect from the insurance company (I or they may
  have to pay a lien holder).

  In the medical insurance game, I pay a premium to the insurance
  company. When I need to collect (ie use medical services) I go to a 
  physician or hospital and they get paid for providing services by the 
  insurer. I do not  collect money  for breaking my arm or catching the 
  flu. It is not enough  to call all insurance games the same just because 
  the profit motive  exists for all  of them. That's like saying baseball 
  and basketball are the same because they both use balls. 

  The difference is in the existance of the third party (medical
  professionals), required because it is life maintenance, not a simple
  betting game like the other insurance games. If my boat is only damaged,
  I can collect the money and fix it myself or not, as I please. The
  same is not true of health insurance. Imagine that I break my arm, then
  insist that I be paid whatever it would have cost to fix it. I could
  decide to fix it myself or not fix it at all. Or take the money and
  go my choice of healer. 

  Because of this structure, I do not accept that insurance companies
  need to know anything beyond the minimum about me. They know how to
  price it without detailed personal information.

  If this is not clear enough, so be it.

  Lastly, medical insurance is often (not always) coerced. For example,
  in a divorce case, especially with kids involved, one or both parents
  will be required to carry it. If you want to be full time student in
  Massachusetts, you are required to carry it (and telling me to give 
  up my choice of being a student is still being coerced.). If you want a 
  job in  Massachusetts, you can only choose which provider you want. Not 
  to carry it is not a choice. This may not be true in other states, but
  it is true in some. I used to live in Mass.

                    cheers, bob





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