Some thoughts on insurance

The world of insurance whether it is for cars, health care,  or your home is a business world.  Businesses make money off of providing us the service of insurance.

One of the ways that they make money is by taking good risks.  Younger and healthier people get lower health care premiums.  Older people get more expensive ones.  Bad drivers get higher premiums or may even have trouble getting insurance just as people in hurricane prone areas might have trouble getting home owner's insurance.

In theory the market sets a rate and eventually everyone gets covered. Except that's not exactly the way it works.  You can pay insurance on your cars for years and years without any claims.  If you have an accident your premium will likely go up.  If you have a health problem and have lost your coverage, you'll probably have trouble getting coverage at any price.

It's too bad insurance isn't just people pooling enough of their money so that the ones who are unlucky enough to have claims can be covered.  I heard someone on the news tonight say that 30-40% of insurance premiums are administrative overhead used to screen people and claims.  While that might be good for business, it isn't exactly the best way to spend health care dollars.

I'll take any tax breaks that I can get, but the older you get, the more concerned you are about getting insurance period.  Using a tax break to make it affordable doesn't seem like a way to drive down health care costs.  The administrative costs seem the most sensible target for savings, and a single payer system appears to be the best way to get there, but I doubt there is any courage to create such a system.