Article Contributed on: 10/8/2007 10:25:30 AM
You wake up in the morning, sleep-deprived with low energy levels. A cup of coffee, the morning commute and a donut and you're now returning text messages. Mid-morning you take a break and decide to work on your personal finances. As you are looking at your needs and desires something begins to dawn on you. First, that snorkel trip to Cozumel and that new pair of shoes on sale offers a lot more satisfaction at a sensual level than making sure you have health insurance. But, insurance is offered by your employer and a shopping trip to the mall isn't.
In looking at your last pay-stub, one thing is obvious. You can see the deductions off the top for Medicare and your portion of health insurance. But, the employer match, which would otherwise be take home pay is disguised. And, the amount of income tax you pay that goes to Medicaid is not disclosed. But, you think, if only the working class is paying, and health care is 16% of GNP, then you have to figure at least 25% of my income is being siphoned off to keep the health care system afloat.
But, there is another glitch. You are basically healthy. You exercise, eat right and have not yet hit the "zone" where life's chronic abuses have become illness. So, here you are struggling to pay the rent and make payments on a car and student loans and a lion's share of your income is going to pay for someone else's entitlements. You might die of natural causes in your sleep and all those expenditures for health care will have gone to a bunch of free-riders.
When one generation pays for another's health care, an implied social contract is in force but its legitimacy is periodically re-examined. You see these old goats who smoke eat pork rinds and guzzle beer instead of water and it brings into question one's true charitibility. By and large, it's really not poor children who are being helped, but those who refuse to wear a motorcycle helmet or quit smoking. You pay for their health care and you pick up the slack at work when they use sick leave.
You can at least rationalize that you are one of the lucky ones who has health insurance. You work at King Soopers and the union demands you have benefits, something that most employees at Walmart don't get. But, if health insurance in the open market is $1,000 a month for a family and you have foregone take-home pay, shouldn't there be something in return? Like, maybe frequent buyer credits that allow you to least to get pair of shoes at Nordstrom's once a year?
Being coerced into paying for another generation's entitlements is one thing, but being forced to pay for health care upfront through premiums years in advance and possibly never getting it back is another thing. What if I change jobs or health plans?Who gets all that money I never tapped in to? Suzy next to me got a face lift out of it. Joe's doctor conjured up a diagnosis of cataracts and he got lasik surgery and now he doesn't have to wear glasses anymore. What did I get for allowing my personal income to become a sinkhole drain in the name of the socialization of inter-generational risk and income redistribution? I was dispossessed of a huge chunk of my income over my working years? And, what I get is to go find a new doctor since my lifelong primary care physician doesn't take Medicare.
What do you think I am, a chimpanzee or what?