I'm a Free Rider

According to liberal and conservative pundits the people responsible for the need for an “individual mandate” in the government healthcare plan are the “free riders.” These are people who choose to be uninsured but make use of the emergency room. This practice causes all of health care to be more expensive. As I listened to several people explain this I found out that I have manipulated the system to my advantage. Without my manipulation the pure free market system would have worked.

You see I am uninsured. When I applied for insurance about 4 years ago, my wife and I were rejected by the insurer. We were too fat and I had high blood pressure. Our last health insurance coverage was through my wife’s employment, but she had suffered a work injury and our return to California left us with no ready source for employment-based health insurance. In 2008 I started my own business. I don’t have any employees, but have two independent contractors I work with.

By the way, if I had received the policy, the premium would have run about $1200 per month. This was for a policy with a $5,000 deductible. I can assure you that a requirement to pay that $17,000 would have put me out of business. Of course, then I would have been eligible for health care programs for the poor, such as Medi-Cal.

So, for the last four years we have been cash payers. When we could, we used generic drugs. We never used the emergency room. We had primary doctors and used the local medical clinic urgent care for matters that couldn’t wait. I didn’t want to take my wife to the emergency room the other night. I knew that I didn’t have any coverage. But she looked like she was going to die. And she did, twelve hours later. I don’t know how much the bill is going to be. I am hoping that it won’t bankrupt me. The medical worker has been calling to make an appoint to apply for Medi-Cal so they will pay the bill. I have my doubts about whether there will be any coverage. I think I might make too much money

If I had purchased the insurance which I was TURNED DOWN for in 2008, by now I would have paid out over $68,000 in premiums and deductibles. My cash payments have run about $550 per month, which totals approximately $26,000.

It looks as though the supreme court will overturn the health care law. Some pundits proclaim that the free market will take care of the system. I guess to have a true free market system the government would have to stop treating senior citizens through Medicare and Veterans though their health care system. They would have to discontinue Medicaid for the poor and disabled (Medi-Cal), and they would have to STOP providing EMERGENCY care to any who need it.

Then the rest would take care of itself, right? Either way, my wife would have died. That makes me sad, and angry at the stupid mess we have gotten into with uncontrollable medical costs.