Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Protection from financial ruin

Why do we have any kind of insurance? For protection from financial ruin.


But the health insurance world doesn't quite work that way.

If a tree falls on your house, you assume your home owner's insurance would cover it. And it probably will except a relatively small deductible. If you get in a car accident, you assume your car insurance would cover it. And it probably will except for a relatively small deductible. If you get sick, you can assume you will end up paying a lot somehow because of what your health insurance won't cover.

That's the key difference. With any other kind of insurance, we assume we will be covered except for a relatively small proportion of the total amount which is why we carry the insurance. But we know our health insurance won't cover everything - they only cover the parts they want to unless you can get a special approval. What is wrong with this system? Everything. It is not designed to protect the patient from financial ruin.

I do not have a solution for this. It is a systemic problem which will require systemic change throughout the health care system.

1 comment:

eco18 said...

Here is some great current information about breast cancer http://eco18.com/breast-cancer-awareness-month/

I Started a New Blog

I started this blog when I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. Blogging really helped me cope with my cancer and its treatment. Howe...