Obamacare, is There Another Option?

Grandpa took me to a political rally in town where he was to speak as the opposition to those who were promoting health care reform. He was to be the last to speak and we listened to a couple of other speakers and the heart rendering stories of how people could no longer afford health care coverage in hopes that these stories would convince the audience to their view.


As I looked around the room I could see that grandpa would be at a disadvantage if he wanted to persuade the audience of his view. The audience, from the look on their faces and the whispers that I heard, was already persuaded that reform was needed to help those in need. When I saw this I looked up at grandpa with great dismay showing in my eyes. Grandpa just got up, looked down at me with a smile then he winked at me so as to assure me that he was confident of what he had to say then walked confidently to the podium.

He just gazed out at the audience, allowing them to talk and just waited until it quieted down before he said a word.

“Last night, my grandson and I was on the computer doing some computations and he saw something that I hope will help guide him in making plans for his future. I’ll admit that I wish someone had shown me these facts when I was a youngster and encouraged me to use that fact as one of my goals in life. It is a fact that if everyone thought about and made it their goal, none of these stories you heard from the distinguished speakers before me would have been told today. The results of what we did can be seen in my previous post.

Ok, now, we have seen that person can, with planning, provide the money to basically provide for his own health costs from the last post. And we have seen that health care costs would automatically be lower than it is now. The reason being is that you are only paying the costs of an actual occurrence of illness rather then paying premiums based on the possibility of an occurrence of illness. Remember, that possibility is low enough so as to provide a tidy profit for the insurance companies and is the sole reason of their existence.

One of the biggest benefits of self-insurance is that you are providing full coverage for yourself. This is a benefit that no third party insurance provider dares to offer, not even the government. This additional coverage may include dental, vision, or even mental care that an insurance policy may not cover.

And if you so choose, it could even cover cosmetic therapy also which very few if any insurance policies offer. They say that a good massage is good therapy but how many health insurance companies will issue a policy with this feature? You can though, if you self-insure. The choice of coverage is strictly up to you.

Another major benefit of self-insurance is the decision making. When you self-insure what procedures, tests, or therapy that is to be used is a decision that is strictly between you and your doctor. You and you alone have the final say. When you take out a health insurance policy, you, the patient, are left out of the decision making process. Your insurance company has the final say in this phase of health care.

Who do you believe will have your best interest in mind when that decision must be made? You have a choice to make. You can choose that the decision be between you and your doctor, your insurance company and your doctor, or, if we eventually go with the single payer option that as one of the previous speakers advocated for, be between your doctor and the government. The decision of which option is best is one that only you can make.

I cannot make that decision for you. And I do not believe that anyone else should have that right either. If you, as an individual, agree with me then you’d have to admit that health care reform must begin and end with the individual and not with the politicians up on Capitol Hill.

Now, for you that want to see government take a part in this issue there are ways also and it doesn’t require the use of force as would happen with socialized medicine. And that way is found in the tax code that already exists. It would only require a small change but that is for a future post. My allotted time is up now.”

In leaving the audience with this final thought to ponder over grandpa stepped down from the podium. As he got over to me he leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Well, boy, do you think they really heard anything I said?”