by Alieta Eck

If you get insurance through your employer, you are really not insured. For when you get too sick to work, you lose your job. You cannot afford COBRA.

If you are self-employed and buy your own insurance, you are really not insured. When you get too sick to work, you cannot pay the premiums.

If you work for a big company and get your insurance through them, you are really not insured. The company can get downsized, lay you off or go bankrupt.

If you work for the government, you are only insured while you are employed. If you get too sick to work, you lose your job and your insurance.

If you depend on the government programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, watch it–they will go bankrupt in 20 years. Young taxpayers will never be able to keep up with the cost of the programs. And the next generation will have little patience with us when we are old and infirm. We certainly will not be in a position to be demanding of health care. People enrolled in these programs are already finding that it is harder and harder to find physicians. The program bureaucrats are being paid before the caregivers.

The ONLY real insurance is the kindness of our families and our communities. This is true charity– fueled by love. We had better be setting up institutions that are very inexpensive to run. We had better be figuring out ways to lower costs and get the government mandates off our backs. We need to solve the medical malpractice problem and have patients be truly grateful for the help we give them.

There are only three levels of care: 1) Health Savings Accounts (HSA’s) giving us the greatest degree of independence; 2) High deductible health insurance is good as long as we can afford it; 3) Charity for those who cannot pay their way and have no insurance.

Alieta Eck, MD., www.zhcenter.org