Lawyers, used car salesmen, and ...

Those of you who know me know  that I am very healthy. I'm in my 50s, I eat well, exercise for more than an hour a day, five days a week.   Don't smoke, have a cocktail or two each evening, and have little stress in my life.   My family has no history of cancer or heart disease.   My dad was healthy into his 80s. My mom is still going strong.

I do have slightly elevated cholesterol that, with a daily low dosage treatment of Simvastatin, is in the exceptionally healthy range and has been for eight years. Simvastatin is so widely used, that it costs less than aspirin ($14 for a year prescription).   That's the only medication I take.  The most serious medical ailment I have ever had was an appendicitis.

So, you'd think that I could easily get health insurance.  Guess again.

After I retired from News10, I had to buy insurance on my own.  I started out paying about $2500 per year for coverage from Bupa (a Latin America company) that allowed me to be in the US for up to six months of the year.  The deductible is $3000 annually.  It is basically catastrophic coverage.  In the past four years, I have thankfully never had to use it.  Now, my premium has exploded to $5500 per year for the same coverage.  And I am shopping around.

I want insurance that will cover me mainly in Mexico, but also in the US when I am here.   That rules out your major carriers like Blue Cross and Aetna who do not provide coverage out of the US (even though the cost of health care in Mexico is about one-third of what it is here). So, I need to go with international companies that I had never heard of before.  IMG, Azimuth, Best Doctors, etc.    Each company has their own way of covering their asses, while not covering mine.

IMG doesn't take at risk clients (cholesterol is a risk).   Azimuth would cover me but would exclude any illness or treatment related to elevated cholesterol.  Heart attack, stroke, circulatory issues, blood issues, leukemia .. all not covered while I still pay $4500 per year.  What the hell good is it?  This afternoon, I got the latest results from the Best Doctors application.  For a $4400 annual premium, They will insure me with a $5000 deductible for most things but a $20,000 annual deductible for anything related to cholesterol.    I am waiting to get further clarification on what anything related to cholesterol would include.  But I imagine, it's probably the same list as the one the good folks at Azimuth threw at me.

OK, here's the deal.  I hear a lot of people complain about President Obama's health care plan.   Probably a lot of those people who are critical already have good health care coverage from work,  or worked for some government agency at one time or another and have lifetime coverage with little out of pocket expense,  or currently have Medicare.   They are the lucky ones.   While the criticism in some cases may be warranted, the reality is, something has to be done to open up medical care to the uninsured or under insured.  Or better yet, quality affordable health insurance needs to become more readily available.  

Last year, a  New York Times article reported that for the third year in a row, health insurance companies were enjoying record profits.  While any industry deserves to make a profit, the question has to be at what cost is it to its customers?   I would like to be one of their customers.     And they want me but only if they are assured they will not have to risk anything if I am their customer.

There used to be an old joke about the most unscrupulous profession  ... the punch line being something about attorneys and used car salesmen. That's so 1980s.  In 2012, it is health insurance executives and the people who try sell their policies, who seemingly care little about the clients, and only about their client's money.