Editor, Times-Union: I suggest that using insurance as the primary means of providing finance of health care delivery is costly, and it is costly because it is estimated that about 31 percent of health care spending in America goes to health insurance overhead and profit (bandits and robbers), which has nothing to do with health care, but regardless of this – it is also costly because funding health care with insurance is also an inappropriate way to pay for health care to begin with. Let me ask a fundamental question. Is health insurance a reasonable way for society to fund health care expenses? I say no. Health care is not a service that should be funded by insurance companies for obvious reasons as I mentioned above. Let me explain. As an individual maybe I should insure myself against expensive and undesirable calamities, such as tornadoes, fires, auto accidents, and the like, consequently these need to be insurable risks, or insurance will not be made available, and when I say insurable risks – I mean the events need to be reasonably random and relatively rare with calculable probabilities that do not change much over time. In short, one cannot insure a burning house against fire because it is, well – already on fire, however though as human beings that is reasonably what we are – a house already on fire. Why, because from the day of our birth each of us is – congenital abnormalities and genetic predispositions to disease or, perhaps risky behavior, and many of these conditions will only be discovered much later – probably in a doctor’s office. Therefore it should be reasonable to understand that using insurance as the primary payment mechanism for health care is costly and inappropriate for two reasons. First: About 31 percent of health care spending in America goes to health insurance overhead and profit (bandits and robbers). Second: How can insurance cover a house that is already on fire, and we as human beings are a house that is already on fire from the day we are born. A little bundle of pre-existing conditions. In my view, insurance is a particularly bad way to cover the financing of health care. Insurance is best suited to covering unexpected losses that result from acts of God, accidents and other unavoidable calamities. But as human beings we need health care services on a routine basis from the day we are born – and not simply for unexpected calamities. So in conclusion. Not only is health insurance in this country a coalition of bandits and robbers plundering the vast majority of American people. Insurance is also an inappropriate way of financing health care to begin with. In my opinion what we need in this country is a single payer, non-profit, universal health care system. Health insurance is not health care. Bennie Hively Warsaw, via email
