The Fallacy of "Healthcare Insurance"

It is easy to forget that for decades the United States HAD a health care system that was the envy of the world. We had the finest doctors and hospitals, patients received high-quality, affordable medical care, and thousands of privately funded charities provided health services for the poor. I worked in an emergency room where nobody was turned away for lack of funds. People had insurance policies for serious health problems but paid cash for routine doctor visits.

The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul

Insurance companies are pushing fake "health insurance" that is actually mostly very-short-term savings/redistribution schemes with marginal real insurance value compelling doctors to avoid transparent prices BECAUSE OF fake "health insurance?" That's what Dr. Paul is talking about: "People had insurance policies for serious health problems but paid cash for routine doctor visits."

The concept of insurance was never to insure the routine, but to insure the unlikely but catastrophic. Obamacare is not only mandating that individuals have health insurance, but that individuals participate in very-short-term savings schemes with extremely high overhead (negative savings) and redistribution schemes that take from those with no routine care needs and give to those who do.

Responsibility for Healthcare

The financing of healthcare in our country is a huge policy issue that is fought over on multiple fronts. Politicians, bureaucrats, giant corporations, lobbyists, big and small providers, vendors, nonprofits, you, me, and anybody else that pays for or mitigates the costs of healthcare. The battlefields are all over the place. The battlelines are constantly changing.

But healthcare is not just a policy issue. It is much more than that. It is a reality issue.

And the reality is: you are singularly responsible for your health and the associated costs. No matter what a politician says about programs or policies, no matter what a bureaucrat says about rights, no matter how hard an employer talks about the great benefits of being on their plan, the responsibility falls on you.

What can you do with that? What can you do with the current conventional wisdom? How can you do what is best for you?

That's what we are exploring here.