Healthcare Ensurance
So if you go to Webster’s and look up “insure” and “ensure” the words are virtually interchangeable. And when I’m paying premiums these days I’m seriously wondering exactly what’s been made secure, certain, or safe.
And I also totally realize it was only a couple of weeks ago that I last went on and on about insurance. But that was before I got jumped on the Internet. And I didn’t even call the other guy a bruin.
I’m proud to be part of an awesome E-mail network comprised of leading-edge dentists throughout the country and I love participating. Of the truly engaged component of our Molar Jockey Internet crew, about 80% would probably fist pump Rush (some are on a first name basis) if he were only a little more conservative and slightly more self-expressed. Sometimes it gets a little weird.
After spending way too much quality time on the network I actually start getting kind of paranoid. Suddenly, I’m looking for Socialists everywhere. On TV, in my gym bag, even behind the crummy fence lining TC’s “The Piazza (coming soon.)”
Seems like government doing anything these days is Socialism. And I guess if you’re one of the 47 million with no health insurance or one of 25 million with not enough insurance maybe you’re looking for some “security” or “safety” wherever you can find it. Think you’ll find relief from caring, sympathetic insurance companies? In the health insurance industry, relief is spelled P-R-O-F-I-T.
Between 2000 and 2007, the top ten health insurance companies increased profits by 428%, mostly because they could. Premiums for employer-provided health insurance (that’s me) have doubled since 2000. Even in dentistry, the annual maximum benefit that was $1000 in 1971 remains $1000 today in spite of inflation that makes everything 7-8 times more expensive now than almost 40 years ago.
So I dunno; some key reasons I’m a healthcare provider today and an employer who provides full health insurance for my co-workers go to my public school education K-12 and later at Cal State LA. And without my “socialized” education I could easily be one of some 72 million folks who are one banana peel away from losing everything. As it is, I’m just another small businessman ensured of getting hosed by insurance.
Maybe I’m crazy but the public sector was there for me when I wanted an education. The private sector dropped my worker’s comp coverage after 15 years because a dental assistant hit her elbow on a counter top while cleaning up a treatment room.
Funny thing is, not having dental insurance actually keeps folks away from the dentist when the tab for x-rays and exam are the investment equivalent of a microwave oven. And the preventive value of a visit to the dentist can be tens of thousands of dollars in terms of quality of life and even years of life.
So part of dealing with healthcare is being responsible and doing what you know you oughta do to take care of yourself. We’ve worked to encourage folks by offering complimentary x-rays and exam (or if there is dental insurance coverage, a rebate of similar value for future care.) Now if we could just get a similar commitment from a few health insurance companies. Or maybe some decent competition and competitive prices.
But see ya; gotta run. I’m off to the public 210 and the public driving range; might even listen to some public radio coming from public Pasadena City College on the way. Just hope I’m not getting a lesson from some freakin’ socialist golf pro…
