But It Costs $7,000-$10,000 To Remove A Lump From My Nose?

The short answer to the question is, Insurance doesn’t cover Lasik Surgery at all. Insurance may, or may not cover removing the lump of skin from my nose. There’s no way to know until after the procedure, when it’s submitted to the insurance company. If they refuse to cover what they consider elective cosmetic surgery (as the lump has been biopsied, and found not to be cancer), I get to pay the entire bill myself.

Because dealing with the insurance company is expensive, most physicians have at least one person on staff who specializes in working with insurance companies and specialists aren’t cheap, the cost of any procedure that may be covered, skyrockets. Contrary to popular belief, insurance companies don’t always pay all, or any of the cost for the procedure. Government backed insurance, like Medicare or Medicaid, is notorious for paying pennies on the dollar, if they pay anything at all.

So in an effort to get paid the full amount, Doctor’s offices generally raise the price for the insurance companies, which raises the price for everyone. It’s not because they are greedy. It’s because they want what everyone else wants, to be paid a fair wage for their services.

A century ago, we didn’t have insurance. At least, not like we do today. Insurance can be traced all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia, but the first American Insurance company was started in 1752, by Benjamin Franklin. Insurance companies had been around Europe for centuries. The reason it took so long to get insurance in America, was because of all the risks, known and unknown. We were the Frontier, and the Frontier is a dangerous place.

The insurance company Franklin started, The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire, set new standards for building houses, because they refused to insure houses they considered fire hazards. This led to houses being built farther apart, and made from less flammable materials. Insurance companies started those building codes your Contractor tells you about.

Insurance is now, and has always been about mitigating risk. When your business plan is to have people pay you in case of disaster, you are going to do everything you can, to see that disaster never strikes. That way you can keep the money they pay you! The more probable the disaster, the more money you will ask for insuring against that risk. If the risk is just too great, you won’t insure it at all. That is how insurance works. It really is that simple.

Medical insurance didn’t start until 1929. Before then, people paid their doctor bill when they saw him, just like the Butcher, the Tailor, or any other Professional. At this time, house calls were still done, so the Doctor literally knew where you lived. Of course, the Doctor who treated your cold, most likely delivered your birth, and the births of your children. Doctors in the cities expected payment with money. Those in rural areas might be paid with chickens, pigs, or other livestock, if the patient didn’t have the money. After all, the point of payment was to feed the Doctor’s family, it didn’t matter if he spent money to buy the food, or simply slaughtered it himself.

The first medical insurance plan, started in 1929, was a group of teachers in Dallas, TX who entered into an agreement with Baylor Hospital, to provide room and board in addition to medical services. The teachers ended up getting basic medical care and hospital stays in return for paying a small fee every month.

Because the teachers knew the rough costs of a doctor visit, and the daily cost of staying in the local hospital, they knew if the amount they paid for this insurance that gave them medical services regularly, and hospital services when needed, was fair or not. If they thought it was fair, they took the insurance. If not, they paid the Doctors and hospital as needed.

What started out as a convenience and piece of mind, that you could see a Doctor, or go to the hospital any time you needed, soon became an industry. Large Insurance companies started offering similar services, of various levels, to more people in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

It was 1932 that Health Insurance as we know it today, started. That is when two companies started offering two different plans. Blue Cross offered plans that covered hospital stays and Blue Shield offered plans that covered doctor visits. What you need to understand about hospitals at the beginning of the 20^th Century, is that they were poorhouses. Hospitals were not for healing the sick. Hospitals were places where the indigent went to die.

Depending on your age, your parents or grandparents may have been born at home. Especially if they grew up outside the cities. No one who could afford to call the family Doctor, was ever sent to the hospital. Treatments, such as they were, happened in the home. Only the Homeless went to the hospital.

As medical science progressed and effective treatments began to appear, along with a revolution in medical education, a new emphasis on healthcare started to emerge. Hospitals began to rebrand themselves as places to have babies. Remember, Penicillin wasn’t discovered until 1928! Most of what we think of as modern medicine, like antibiotics, has only been with us for less than 100 years. Before that, medicine wasn’t much better than beads and rattles.

All of this new medicine cost money. New equipment for diagnosing illnesses also cost money. If a hospital, that was now a place of healing, was going to spend thousands of dollars on a new diagnostic tool that only a few were really going to use, it was going to be expensive for those few. Insurance companies began to cover those costs. It made sense to the insurance companies that quickly and accurately diagnosing illnesses, as well as testing to prevent future illness, would save them money in the long run.

Costs, while more than the average person could probably afford, without savings, were still relatively low. Different companies developed medications or equipment. There was competition between these companies for who could create the best medicines, or most accurate diagnostic equipment. This meant that prices were competitive.

The hot mess we call our healthcare system, started in 1966, when Medicare, signed into law by President Johnson (D) TX in 1965, first took effect. The original law was to give those over the age of 65, medical coverage. It made sense, since 65 was the usual retirement age, and those people who were retired, would no longer have employer provided insurance. Harry Truman (D) MO, who had pushed for national healthcare during his Presidency, and his wife Bess, were the first two beneficiaries of Medicare.

That same law also established Medicaid, which was to provide health coverage for low-income people. In 1997 this was expanded to cover children in families with income too high to qualify for Medicaid, but who can’t afford private insurance. These would be kids whose parents have jobs, but their employer doesn’t provide insurance benefits.

The Basic Health Program came in with the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare) in 2014 and covers those who are ineligible to purchase coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Basically, those who can’t afford insurance any other place. This same law required every American to have medical insurance, and required Insurance Providers to cover pre-existing conditions.

In Colorado, we learned long ago, when the state required all drivers to have car insurance, that as soon as something is required by the Government, the price goes up. It’s called a Captive Audience. Ever notice the price of a snack or drink at the sports arena is 10 times what you can buy it anywhere else? That’s because they won’t allow you to bring in food or drink for outside. They require you to buy it there. Same thing with movie theaters. Of course, unlike the Government, they don’t require you to buy anything, if you don’t want to.

So now you have a situation where everyone is required to pay for medical insurance, and insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. The reason coverage for pre-existing conditions was usually denied, is because the Insurance Company knows they are going to have to pay out money immediately, if they cover it. Pre-existing conditions have an extremely high probability of costing the Insurance Company money, so they tended not to cover them.

Now that the Government requires the insurance Companies to cover pre-existing conditions and requires us all to have insurance, those Insurance Companies have raised their rates to cover the costs of the pre-existing conditions and because we are a captive audience, so everyone pays more. Add to that the fact the Insurance Companies have always stressed that they will take care of the bills, so the public doesn’t need to know the actual cost of treatment and you have everything you need for an amazingly corrupt system.

Now have politicians not bother to correct people when they say Medicare, but are actually referring to Medicaid, so that the politicians can obfuscate the issue even further. This is how we get things like Medicare For All. Medicare doesn’t provide insurance for the indigent, but the politicians will happily use it for a slogan. Then they can change Medicaid under the radar, to cover more people, without anyone paying attention, because they’re all focused on Medicare.

We end up with a system where ill-informed people protest against the wrong programs. Politicians use that to their advantage in order to meet political agendas. Insurance companies convince both the public and Congress that no one needs to know the actual cost of care, so they can charge whatever they want for premiums, and no one can say they are overcharging. Then there are the Government programs that promise to cover the cost of being sick, but only pay pennies on the dollar, to the medical providers. In an effort to get paid properly, Doctors raise their prices, to that the pennies on the dollar will pay both their salaries and the salaries of their much larger staff who deals with the Insurance Companies, as well as pay for all the latest and expensive diagnostic tools the public expects them to have.

One more thing to throw in here, the dollar that used to be worth 100 pennies 100 years ago, is now worth two pennies. That means it takes more dollars to buy the same amount of anything! Oh, and the Politicians you vote for, aren’t interested in fixing anything, because as long as it’s broken, they have something to campaign with.

It’s all connected. There is no solving just a single problem. That also keeps people from trying. When the problem has grown so massive, how can you fix it?

Tl;dr: The Government and the Insurance Companies have screwed up our healthcare system so badly, because they have always worried about what was in their own best interest, not what was in the best interest of the consumer. Insurance should be for use in a major catastrophe, not daily use.

My solution is deceptively simple. First, remove the requirement that everyone have Healthcare Insurance. Hospitals always have, and always will be required to help anyone who shows up at their Emergency Room, whether they have insurance or not. That doesn’t change, but by allowing people the option not to have insurance, we are no longer a Captive Audience to the Insurance Companies. They have to again give us reasons to choose to use them.

The other thing to do, is to require that all medical professionals and facilities post their prices up at the front desk, for anything they provide. Even better, they could give prices for when insurance is used, and when it is not. Remember when gasoline used to have a cash price and a credit price? Cash was always cheaper, because there was no processing fee. They same would be true here.

By posting the prices up front, like EVERY other business, you the consumer have the opportunity to price shop before medical care is needed. It also keeps surprise bills from Out of Network Doctors from happening, because all that will be determined up front. The only reason any of this can happen now, is because we do not know the price of the service until after the Insurance Company has decided to pay or not.

By posting prices up front, Doctors, hospitals and Emergency Rooms will now have to compete against each other. Everyone will know what everyone else charges, which will bring those prices down. You can choose where to go, and which Doctor to see based on price, and the services offered for that price. Your healthcare becomes a consumer product again. You become the customer, not the Insurance Company.

We already know this model works, since I can get Lasik eye surgery for $250 per eye. Imagine what that would cost if insurance covered it. It would be $10,000 per eye!

I am asking you to vote for me as your Representative, because I am tired of watching Career Politicians make the same old promises year after year, never delivering on them. Unlike those Career Politicians, I have solutions, and I am telling you my solutions before you vote, so you can decide if my solutions are feasible or not. The others expect you to elect them on faith.

Because I am a Libertarian, I owe no allegiances to a Political Party. I will vote based on what’s best for my community, not how my Political Party tells me to vote.

This November, the choice is yours. You can try the same old thing, hoping for a different outcome, or you can vote for actual change.