What if she had to find her own food. Would she then change her ways?
I wonder about humans too, how they vote for things/programs/ services that have been there automatically, provided for them by their parents. Would young people know that taking care of themselves means to control risk as well, pay for health and car insurance and fire insurance they may never need?
Some of us retirees are finding out what it is like to live on fixed income. If we experienced our own parents' demise in old age, facing mounting medical bills, wearing the same clothes, eating less and less, doing fewer and fewer activities that cost money, we might have learned that planning for old age should have started long before old age appeared in the back door.
Who is out there in government, in businesses, that we can trust? Can we trust banks with our savings? And investment companies with our retirement funds? How do we know that their habits are fiduciary, meant to protect us? I know that after the Northridge earthquake of 1994 in Southern California many insurance companies stopped writing earthquake insurances, or automatically increased the premiums and the deductibles to protect their interests in the future.
Businesses are there for profits.
Their only goal is to grow their profits.
As long as our health is run like a business, profits will be the ultimate goal.
14 comments:
trust only as far as the self interesting in the now...sadly this is our reality right now and there is not a lot of long term thinking as far as consequences...
Who pays for those who do not get insurance and then require treatment? I think that is what the healthcare act tries to address, none too well I fear. Hopefully it will be tweeked until most people pay some fair share, perhaps taxes can pick up the slack, and like you say perhaps the system could somehow have less incentive for profit. Unfortunately sometimes without the profit motive systems do not run efficiently. Big dilemma, but this country has solved big dilemmas before hopefully we can solve this one.
After my former employer, (disabled retired in 1999) the City of Detroit cut my wife off 100% from her medical insurance 1/1/14 and changed my policy to about a 700% increase.
I had to talk to 13 people at Blue Cross to find a plan for my wife, if we max it out for the year it will cost $10,000 before the company pays all.
I'll work on mine next week.
This is how the city treats it's disabled employees nowA roof caved in on him
A sad state of affairs, this. Everything you say is true. Hubby and I are talking about ways we can cut back...and we're only 71. What if we have to live for 20 years? Scary thoughts.
Life is complicated... and a long long time ago it was simpler. But would we want to go back? There were problems then too (life expectancy was shorter). Now we're facing things like no job security and expensive medical insurance, etc. But we just need to work it out. We are retired and find that it isn't easy to get by on SS (even with a little savings), but what if SS didn't exist? What if there were no medical insurance? IMO only... we shouldn't throw out the baby with the bath. Don't give it all up because we haven't come up with the right solution yet...
Well there's the rub. I don't think you can trust either business or government entirely -- there's the profit motive, and the self-interest motive, the not-paying-attention factor, the ambition factor, and a hundred other reasons why you don't get treated with respect and honesty. Perhaps trust, but verify, is a good motto.
I think back to the banking crisis of 2008-9. Through it all, our checking accounts and saving accounts were fine; our bills and payments were transacted efficiently; nobody lost any money on that score anyway. How did it work? Private enterprise, backed by government regulation and oversight. Maybe that's the way to go ... and isn't that what the ACA is trying to do? I know there have been screw-ups. But I still have high hopes.
Couldn't agree with you more.
I work in health care and all I can say is: Good luck everyone (including me) on getting quality care. I'm hoping I'll still have a job. Good luck getting a physician. I live in a rural area and getting a doc to move here is becoming harder and harder.
Sadly in the UK the fate of the NHS (and thus 'free' healthcare) is uncertain.
There is a steady privatisation of services (that will provide a return for said investors)and in years to come I am certain services will have to be paid for 'up-front'...and then I will understand your post more. I cannot image the dilemmas you face.
Contrary to belief healthcare is not free in the UK - we pay for it in our taxes. But what you have never had (as in this contribution) - you never miss.
Anna :o]
few people, I think, can adequately prepare for old age. We did what we were told, invested money and lost it all. We don't make enough money to lose like that. it was a hard hit. now we just keep it banked for a minuscule interest rate. but also because we don't ever know from one month to the next how much income we are going to have. personally, I don't trust any business to have my best interests at heart.
Hi Rosaria .. couldn't agree more - and if we don't take from the state or elsewhere .. we'd all be better off.
It is certainly not easy .. and business does mean profit and exorbitant profits at that ...
At least we know how to live a meagre life and make do and mend .. so many don't ..
Good reminder .. Hilary
Businesses are there for profits.
Their only goal is to grow their profits.
As long as our health is run like a business, profits will be the ultimate goal.
WELL SAID!!!!!
Absolutely! Profit is the main philosophy in our world.
We are tring to keep the National Health Service free from profit interests but I doubt that we will succeed.
Our NHS is being deliberately run down to sell off, like other services and we have been feeling the consequences for some time. As for all the other rip-offs we are suffering, best not get me started.
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