How would life be if we used the "medical insurance" method for other necessities?

the scene:
a busy household..5:30 AM..

Mom's scurrying around trying to get 3 kids in gear so they can all start their day..one needs 3 dozen cupcakes he forgot to tell her about..another cannot find his backpack.. the third one is hopping around on one foot, looking for a lost shoe..

Mom takes a moment to write each one a check for his "daily co-pay", which must be delivered to the office before they go to class

Then Mom goes off to work, and starts her day, but not before mailing off her "road-premium" for the month. It's a day late, so she got tagged with a late fee..again..

After break she heads for the restroom, and unfortunately has to borrow a nickel from her next-stall neighbor for the "flush-fee"..(use of the toilet is free), but unless you want the person waiting for your stall to "know what you did", you must deposit a nickel to flush..

Later in the morning, the darned fire alarm goes off, and now the whole place is filled with firemen.. Luckily it's a false alarm, but now everyone has to reach for their wallets to pay the "fireman co-pay". (public safety is not free, y'know)..she grumbles a little since she already pays her fire department -premium at home, and still must kick in at work.

Lunch with the coworkers was uneventful except for the fact that 3 of them did not pay their road-use premium that month, and had to ride with her.

She arrives home at 6:00 to find that the house had been broken into while everyone was gone. Her kids called the police, and now she has to pay the "cop co-pay" because they stayed longer than 5 minutes, (that's all that's allowed with the coverage they purchased).


.....................

The "insurance" method of paying for things you intend to use, is one of the stupidest things ever devised. Health care is a necessity, and should be paid though taxation, like the other necessities of life are paid for.

We do not pay-as-we go for schools, roads, sewer systems, police protection, fire protection, for the building of power plants etc.

There are some fees associated with many services, but the construction of the infrastructure, and the maintaining of it, is a public expense, borne by all of us. We tax ourselves to build it, and then we pay a monthly service fee to use it.. This is also a viable method of funding medical care. We do not need an intermediary to add 30% to our electric bill, as profit, just so they can mail the check to the electric company for us..

but the Firemen would be delayed by having to fill out a large number of forms anyway.

because you actually atempted to use the coverage when your house caught fire. Your house burned to the ground due to the fact that you hadn't disclosed in your application 20 years ago that you would be storing known flamables in the structure, i.e. furniture, carpets, linens, etc.

:grr:

If you didn't get approval and the fire wasn't serious your claim might be denied and you'd have to pay the fire department yourself.

and ended up having to re-dial for 20 minutes more:)

out of class because they owe another $50 because the insurance company's investments are not paying enough to finance the CEO's new private jet.

I hope they pull an Icarus soon and fall to earth..

Especially where I live in Central Florida.
This area (around Orlando) was relatively undeveloped when the interstate system was laid out in the 50's, and really didn't see much population until the early 70's with the creation of Disney World. Hence, unlike Tampa, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale and Jacksonville it is pretty underserved by the federal freeways.

The solution has been to construct toll roads. With lots of tolls.
The downside is that if you want to go anywhere in a hurry, you'll pay.
The upside is that they have transponders to ease the pain, and the roads are extremely well taken care of.
And, you can choose to take surface roads if you want.

They inconvenience everyone while building them, and then only well-off people can afford to use the damned special lanes:grr:

:loveya::yourock::loveya:

My husband made that same point to me yesterday.

Your house is on fire - "do you have Firefighter Insurance?"
Somebody's breaking into your house - "Do you have Police Insurance?"

Exactly the same as - you're diagnosed with cancer - a catastrophe which c an happen to anyone and which we should all be covered against by National health Insurance.

:kick: