I linked to “Gladwell’s piece on health insurance & moral hazard”:http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050829fa_fact through my delicious list yesterday, and today I got around to reading it all.
I may have mentioned here before that we got married so C could get on my dental insurance. (in response to a question I got years ago from a baffled colleague: we live together because we love each other; we got married for “the man.”)
Honestly, I think the moral-hazard argument is a sin. And I’m not even religious.
Most of the last 8 years, I’ve been with Group Health, but last year (2004) we switched to another plan, because the monthly was way cheaper. For the first time I had an annual deductible to deal with. I can say for certain that it changed how I dealt with health care. I honestly think it may have taken me longer to deal with the headaches I had that winter/spring than it might’ve otherwise, because the money question was different.
And I was in pain. Luckily, it didn’t turn out to be anything very serious, mostly just muscle tension. On the flip side, that means I was suffering with headaches…and being less productive…because I didn’t want to spend the money.
Again, we got married so C could get his wisdom teeth removed. What the hell kind of country do we live in where that can happen? He hadn’t been to the dentist in years, either. I didn’t go myself from the time I left home (my last appointment: followup from wisdom teeth removal!) until I got my first job that offered insurance. Again, I was lucky; my teeth were in good shape.
All in all, the time I was uninsured wasn’t very long: about a year, all told. But in that year, I mashed my big toe and had a UTI, both of which went longer than they should’ve before getting treatment. I’m realizing, I think with new force, that I’m actually doing pretty well, financially, even if it all seems more precarious than I’d like.
But that doesn’t reduce my sense of outrage.