People Avoiding DNA Testing To Keep Being Insured

[jimbob]

El Greco, I have little knowledge of the Greek system, could you elaborate please?

Even better in this thread.

 

[dickenslover]

I see. Thanks for the response. Where I live, if I break my arm, I just go to the hospital and they do what needs to be done. I won't get a bill for treatment, but I'd probably have to wait all day to see a physician. There's no perfect health care model. It's such a complex issue. Politicians make it sound like such a simple issue, though.

Where I live, I had to wait 6 hours in the emergency room to receive stitches in my foot. I wasn't a high pain priority, true --but when the doctor finally stitched me up, she commented that if I had waited any longer, it would have been too late to stitch me up. Had I waited another half hour, I would have found myself with a foot that needed 12 stitches (but couldn't get them), a waste of a day of work & an emergency room co-pay (minimum of $50). Other countries do not have an exclusive on having to wait for treatment.

 

[jimbob]

dickenslover, what country do you live in, please?

 

[Wheezebucket]

Last time I went into the emergency room was for a kidney stone. I don't know if you know what that's like, but...they suck - bad. I had to wait for almost 2 hours in the waiting room trying not to scare people with my moaning and writhing, and then wait another hour and a half laying down waiting for the doctor. By the time someone showed up, I had almost finished passing the stone. Another few hours later, after a quicky cat scan, they said it was gone but I had another one coming that they couldn't do anything about, gave me a pee filter (to catch it so they could analyze it later, like I was going to come in and pay a million dollars for that) and a bottle of vicodin and sent me on my way. My bill was roughly 3,200 dollars. I spent maybe 10 minutes with a doctor, 30 total being assisted. This was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was (and am) uninsured. I'm still paying it off to this day, only I had another visit from a year early I was still working on paying off. On my tiny, tiny budget, this is unmanageable.

I don't care for our system. I would like NHS, please. I'm more than willing to pull my weight, but these thieves (excuse me, insurance companies) are bleeding me dry and I can't keep up. I don't smoke, I eat relatively well, I take care of my body - but, like everyone, I need medical assistance sometimes. As it stands, one more trip to the doctor and I'll have to spend virtually all of my yearly income just paying off medical bills. It's difficult to live like this.

Oh well.

 

[Sir Robin Goodfellow]

Last time I went into the emergency room was for a kidney stone. I don't know if you know what that's like, but...they suck - bad. I had to wait for almost 2 hours in the waiting room trying not to scare people with my moaning and writhing, and then wait another hour and a half laying down waiting for the doctor. By the time someone showed up, I had almost finished passing the stone. Another few hours later, after a quicky cat scan, they said it was gone but I had another one coming that they couldn't do anything about, gave me a pee filter (to catch it so they could analyze it later, like I was going to come in and pay a million dollars for that) and a bottle of vicodin and sent me on my way. My bill was roughly 3,200 dollars. I spent maybe 10 minutes with a doctor, 30 total being assisted. This was in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I was (and am) uninsured. I'm still paying it off to this day, only I had another visit from a year early I was still working on paying off. On my tiny, tiny budget, this is unmanageable.

I don't care for our system. I would like NHS, please. I'm more than willing to pull my weight, but these thieves (excuse me, insurance companies) are bleeding me dry and I can't keep up. I don't smoke, I eat relatively well, I take care of my body - but, like everyone, I need medical assistance sometimes. As it stands, one more trip to the doctor and I'll have to spend virtually all of my yearly income just paying off medical bills. It's difficult to live like this.

Oh well.

Did you ever think of emigrating north? We need workers up here...

 

[a_unique_person]

There's an article in the NYT about how some people are avoiding getting checked for genetic predisposition to diseases and conditions because they don't want to lose their insurance. Some of them, however, are having the tests done privately. That strikes me as odd, except, perhaps, in this case:



I know when you give blood they check your iron levels. If they're two low, you can't give blood, but what if they're too high? What does that mean for the recipient? Anything? Nothing?

This girl I feel for:



Although I can't understand why they didn't tell the doctor that the father has an increased risk of blood clots and why they didn't want to do the testing and look for other options. However, the result of being concerned about your future health insurance is something I sympathize with since I'm graduating soon and the best way for me to ensure I get the care I need is to go into a group plan from my current group plan with the university.

NYT Story here.

Australia has community rating by law. Everyone gets insured, at the same rate. People can only be turned down if they want to join up the day after they find out they have some medical condition, and expect to get treated the next day, but that only means their application will be delayed.

 

[shep]

Only skimmed the first page, but thought I'd try out my angle on the silliness of 'health insurance', as inspired by economist Tim Harford (second time I've brought him up this month!)

People have already brought up the 'uncertainty requirement' of insurance, I see, though I feel it's not quite that simple... there was the assumption of uncertainty, but there was also inside information.

In the past, and largely in the present, it was the clients who had more certainty than the insurers, and this in itself has led to an inefficient system. I might have been pretty sure I was going to get heart disease because my father and grandfather did, but I wasn't going to tell that to my insurance company... they can ask me if I'm a smoker, about pre-existing conditions, etc., but it's all fairly generic stuff and still doesn't give the insurers much to go on, to rate me as low/medium/high risk. The result is that most people pay high premiums. I think.

Now, with all this new knowledge of the human genome and the possibility of DNA testing, this insider knowledge is going to disappear, and insurance will basically be pointless. People who turn out to be high-risk won't be able to hide it from the insurers, and will have to pay premiums so high that they may as well save up themselves for private treatment. People that are low-risk will still pay low premiums, but might opt not to get insurance at all.

Disclaimer: I have very little experience with insurance. I do have health insurance, but in NZ it's not needed to get health treatment, we are covered by lots of complicated programs like ACC and PHOs, etc. I do think it's an interesting topic though.

 

[WildCat]

Australia has community rating by law. Everyone gets insured, at the same rate. People can only be turned down if they want to join up the day after they find out they have some medical condition, and expect to get treated the next day, but that only means their application will be delayed.

That sounds like a sensible system, similar to what I've advocated for here.