Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Saving money on health care

Bring back "hospitalization only" insurance policies.  Back before I became eligible for Medicare, there were two kinds of insurance policies.  The pricey, $12K a year, covers everything, no deductibles policy.  It would pay for doctor's office visits, yearly physicals, pills, everything.  Or, the $3K "hospitalization only" policy which only paid for things serious enough to put you in the hospital.  Everything else, doctor's office visits, pills, physicals, MRI's, you name it, you paid for it out of pocket.  On the other hand, the $9K saving on the policy would pay for a lot of incidentals.  If you were in decent health, and had some ready cash, the "hospitalization only" policy could save you a LOT of money. 
   Plus, since you were paying out of pocket, you tended to shop around, for good prices on pills, MRI's and the like.  I even talked my doctor into changing some of my prescriptions to the $4 a month Walmart pills.  You can cut costs noticeably when you have to pay them yourself.
    Then came Obamacare, which wiped out the "hospitalization only" policies.  Obamacare policies have to cover everything, chiropractic, maternity even for guys, eyeglasses, drug rehab, MRI's, CAT scans, head shrinking, you name it.  The medics loved that part.  So do the drug companies and the hospitals. 

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