Co-Pay-Free Contraception Starts Tomorrow for Many Americans

FredHayek wrote: Free contraception*

*Required to spend a few thousand a year on health insurance you may not want or need.

That's why it's called INSURANCE, Fred.

But I don't need to be insured for contraception, or pregnancy for that matter. There is no reason for me, or my insurance company, to incur a cost to insure me for these things. There are other coverages I may wish to forgo in order to lower my premium. I might, for instance, be willing to pay for my annual physical and other routine care out of pocket and only insure myself against catastrophic illnesses and injury.

These are just a few of the shortcomings with the collectivist approach to health insurance - there are many, many more.

And the 20-something who doesn't buy it because he thinks it's something "he may not want or need" who loses control of his motorcycle, or who is texting-while-driving and wraps himself/herself around a telephone pole and ends up a quadra-/para-plegic... Guess who pays for that? Guess who is going to pay for most of the young people who were wounded at the Aurora theaters who did not have insurance? (Yes, one of the hospitals said they were going to "eat the charges", but what about the rest?)

I really don't care about what the freeloaders who don't want to buy insurance think they "want or need." Yes, if they are required to have a minimum amount of coverage, then we ALL SAVE MONEY in the long run. Can't afford it on what you make? That's the purpose of the exchanges and risk-pools that are part of the law. (Except, of course, for the right-wing moron governors who would rather screw the people of their state for political advantage.)

The only people saying that "contraception is free" is the usual hysterical right-wingers. (You don't like contraception?...Don't use it. You don't like abortion?...Don't have one. You don't like marriage equality?...Don't marry someone of the same gender...) Simple....

Never been a freeloader SFB - and I was uninsured for a number of years when I was younger. Co-pay-free contraception isn't "minimum coverage", neither is a co-pay-free annual exam. Minimal coverage would be a catastrophic injury and illness policy - not one with lots of bells and whistles that for all intents and purposes turn the insurance policy into a pre-paid health care policy - with everyone else paying the bills for you.

If you want to chemically sterilize yourself and pay the additional premium for co-pay-free contraception, by all means, sign up for it. I do not need that coverage and wouldn't have it on mine. I would rather have the extra couple hundred dollars remain in my wallet so that I can purchase food, heat my home or enjoy myself at the movies more often than I currently do.

Guess what else happens in Israel - the doctors are public employees. Pretty easy to keep the costs down when you get to set the income allowed to be earned. The Brits have a similar system and it isn't unheard of for a doctor to take the rest of the year off after they have seen the required number of patients. Why shouldn't they? They won't be getting paid any additional money for the additional work. You sure you want to bring the Israeli/British system here Raees?

Not me, MItt.

Not Mitt either - haven't seen or heard him say that he's like to see the Israeli system over here, have you? I have heard him say that he's like to see the amount of our GDP spent on health care go down. You don't need to hand it over to the government to achieve that though - just open the market up and allow for competition and choices. Right now there are so many mandatory provisions that most insurance companies won't even enter into certain markets. Get rid of the mandatory inclusions and you'll have more companies competing for customers.

The quickest way to lower the cost? Have people start paying for their care and being reimbursed by the insurance companies, including MediCare, rather than having them be able to consume whatever they want for the same low co-pay. When it is your money, rather than money that belongs to someone else, that is being spent, you generally tend to be a bit more frugal and look for quality at a lower cost. If you could buy a super-car for the same cost that you paid for an entry level car, with someone else paying the balance due, you'd pick the super-car every time. That's why health care costs so much these days. No one knows, other than the people paying for it out of pocket that is, what it costs to go see the doctor. All they know, and all they care about, is how much their co-pay is. If they had to pay the doctor, they'd be incensed at what the doctor charges instead of incensed at what the insurance company charges to pick up the majority of the bill for them.