Thursday, October 8, 2009

Car Insurance could provide a roadmap for health insurance reform

By: Christina Dove

As the debate over healthcare reform continues, there have been a few proposals to make our health insurance similar to the policies of our car insurance. It is required for everyone to have car insurance in order to be able to drive. The equivalent for health insurance is that everyone would need to have health insurance in order to live. This causes a lot of controversy because people do not feel that the government has that kind of control over them and it violates our free liberty established in the constitution.

Although, there are still many facets of the health care reform that need to be finalized, we can adapt many of the same principles to health care that we already use for car insurance. For instance, the portability of car insurance is definitely an advantage in that it can be carried across states with different jobs, etc. In addition, the price that people pay for car insurance is directly related to their driving habits (accidents, tickets, etc) as well as their grades for their children. The equivalent could be for those who maintain a healthy lifestyle and remain in good health. This would provide an incentive for people to make better lifestyle choices, since the price they are paying for health insurance would be affected.

It will still be a significant amount of time before this issue is resolved, there are so many proposed solutions and ideas to improve our current system and to make it as affordable as possible for everyone. The Democrats and Republicans are going to have to work together and come up with a compromise on the best solution for America at this time and perhaps use car insurance as a base model.

http://www.thegrio.com/2009/10/one-argument-that-has-been.php

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703298004574457352744634762.html

http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/2009/10/06/health-care-which-is-the-real-party-of-no/?cxntfid=blogs_kyle_wingfield

2 comments:

  1. Car insurance rewards people for having a good clean record but the same cannot be onw for health insurance. Some people have many medical problems/complications that are not due to lack of a healthy lifestyle but are diseases and illnesses which can be extremely expensive. Therefore, if would be hard to distinguish between who disregards being healthy and who cannot physically be healthy due to sickness.
    -Lindsey Connell

    ReplyDelete
  2. very good thinking and a nice intriguing and engulfing post. thanks author for this piece of information, i would like to say something on car accident claims, If your car insurance policy falls due for renewal during this period of determination of fault then it could cost you dear. Your policy record will be flagged as having had a claim and consequently, unless you can convince your Car Insurance Company otherwise, you will be charged additional premium, unless you have bought protected no claims bonus.

    This can be as much as a sixty percent increase in the previous year's premium if you had a good driving history with no claims in the previous three to five years, depending upon which car insurance company you are covered with. You will also be responsible for the cost of any uninsured losses, which are not covered by your car insurance policy.

    ReplyDelete