Just a little politics, I guess...

Not really politics, I guess, but politically topical conversations.

I guess my only real problem with the whole health care debate is that no one really gets to the meat of the issue with regards to private health insurance companies.

Throughout this debate on the American health care system, I think it is important to remember that health insurance companies haven't given one flu shot.  They haven't performed one test.  They haven't provided any medical advice.  They haven't written one prescription.  They haven't performed one surgical procedure.

All they do is indirectly move money from a patient to a provider.  They are a bank, of sorts.  And they charge anywhere from 30 to 50 percent to do it.  They take money from you, hold on to it for a while and then try their very best to not have to pay it out.  Oh, and even if they do pay it out, they keep 30%.  Wow.  That's good business. They have no real risk as they don't provide any products.  Sure, there could be a run of really sick people that could max out their revenue, but they would just up their revenue and then send in the lawyers to do everything they could to not pay for the bills accrued by the patients.  There are stories about this all over.  They keep stalling in courts long enough to bury the patient with legal fees because it is cheaper for them than paying the claims.

Imagine another way.  Visa, you know, the credit card processing company, charges somewhere around 3% to provide its customers with the ability to go into a store, choose something to buy and then swipe a little piece of plastic through a little machine hooked up to a phone line.  Shazam, your bank account is debited and all is well.  Imagine if Visa charged 30%.  There would be no customers and all would go back to cash.  But wait, they even provide the technology to make this happen, not to mention ID security and fraud protection and cute little cards.  Health insurance companies have not innovated.  They don’t make it easier to get access to a doctor.  In fact, they limit to whom you can go see.

They scare us into believing that we need them because something catastrophic may happen.  And it works.  I’m terrified.  And, I am insured.

Some of the older generations about this with whom I have argued keep saying that I don’t get it.  They are on Medicare, by the way.  Medicare charges 6% to move money from you to your doctor.  Hmm.

I guess I just don’t get it.

More on this later.