Its not a simple question, IMHO. The problem we have in America is we've been conditioned to associate the payment for healthcare services with health insurance. I don't use auto insurance to get my oil changed. I don't use auto insurance to get my car washed and waxed. I don't use auto insurance to get the tank filled up with gas. Yet for nearly every healthcare service we use health insurance, which is a horrible way to control costs for several reasons.
First, the health insurance companies who are understandably in business to make money, add in their costs to doing business and profits into every one of our doctor visits, prescriptions, etc. making healthcare needlessly more expensive.
Secondly, the consumer has little say in with whom their healthcare needs will be met. Instead, their employer decides. If I want to shop at Target, I don't want my employer telling me no you won't; we've make a company decision that you and your family can only shop at Wal-Mart. Then if Wal-Mart doesn't carry a product that I want or even need, I'm screwed. I can bring my situation to the attention of Wal-Mart management all I want but all they will likely do is humor me by listening and then get back to whatever they where doing because they KNOW I have no choice in the matter but to be stuck with them and whatever they decide to offer. The only people they have to keep happy are my employers, not me.
Thirdly, as long as I have no say in who meets my healthcare needs or what it costs, there are no competitive market forces in play to keep costs down or to outdo each other in areas of quality of service, etc. Instead, we're left with the kindness of people's hearts, government regulation and fear of law suits.
Now, before anybody jumps to conclusions, under the circumstances it is in many cases cost prohibitive to go outside our current system and buy healthcare services a la carte. Health insurance under the the present situation is BETTER than a la carte out of pocket healthcare and as such IMHO any and all of Sandra Fluke's medical services prescribed by her doctor should be covered. Nobody knows if Sandra Fluke suffers from any number of medical conditions that just so happens to be treated by what are called birth control pills but treats any number of conditions not related to pregnancy prevention of sexually active women and to be honest its nobody's business.
The better solution (Smeagol's Healthcare Reform System (c) 2012
), IMHO is flat monthly fee hospital or health services association membership club similar to gym memberships. Everybody pays the same basic rate and no pre-existing conditions exclusions or lifetime limits. Annual rebates paid out just before Black Friday each year for members who don't engage in unhealthy lifestyles and work out, which all can be monitored. Renewable annually and selected by the consumer, not their employer unless the employer wants to give a tax free annual healthcare membership bonus to its employees. End the requirement to treat non-covered people, in this case non-members. The hospital then treats any and every healthcare issue of their members. Escrow components and national affiliated hospital groups to cover emergency medical needs when out of town. If St. Steven's Hospital says in their annual renewal period we don't do birth control pills, guess what? Sandra Fluke can join the Memorial Hospital group instead, that does. Everybody's costs go down because we've eliminated a needless middleman, the health insurance company except for huge $multi-million policies that the hospitals all buy to cover them in case of their expenses get really high. People have financial incentive be healthy. Everybody in healthcare is working overtime to be better than the other because when its time to renew, they want your business. Safety net for the poor. Huge penalties including wage garnishment and liens for people who decide to get a membership only after they need it to balance out the loss on ongoing revenue.
A doctor friend told me by the time she gets paid for treating a patient, the bill has passed through 8 hands all wanting their cut. The total bill is $80, she got $20 after everybody was paid. If that same model is roughly accurate throughout healthcare, I imagine hospital memberships to be very affordable once we eliminate the middlemen from the mix. I'm just guessing but under $100 a month for singles and a few hundred a month for families. ????