Friday Afternoon Rant

Effective January 1st, our new company health insurance policy through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee went into effect.  Incidentally, the premiums went up.  The only real effect this had on me is that my paycheck is now a few dollars smaller than it was previously. 

Insurance is a racket, and consequently it is one of the many reasons why I’m not a democrat.  Let me ellaborate for those of you that could care less.

The basic socioeconomic principles of the democratic party are based entirely on socialism; there’s no dispute about that, right?  We all agree that democrats fundamentally believe that society as a whole has a duty to share the burden of individuals. 

Here’s why I have a problem with that.

Insurance has premiums and it has co-pays.  For a higher premium you can get a lower co-pay.  Group insurance policies all have standard co-pays and fairly standard tiered rates. 

My premium went up, although I haven’t been to a doctor in 10 years.  I don’t even have a doctor.  My co-pay remained the same.

Why do I have a problem with this?  Because I’m paying more for insurance that I do not use while taking some of the burden off of those people that visit their doctor every time they sneeze.  The co-pay doesn’t affect people like me, but the premium does.

Rising healthcare costs lead directly to rising insurance costs while premiums and co-pays offset these costs for insurers.  As a republican, I believe that instead of raising the premiums, the insurance companies should raise the co-pay.  In effect, this would ensure that the ones using the insurance handled the majority of the burden for their insurance costs rather than myself, a healthy young individual that hasn’t had any use for insurance since high school.   

I blame John Edwards and Jacob Crawford.

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