Calling Dr. WalMart--Part III

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This series about medical insurance started three days ago so scroll down if you want to start at the beginning.

But I promise you it will end today. I'm sick of this stuff. And I'm sick of it because there is no solution, no universal solution that will provide medical coverage at a reasonable price to all people. Oh, sure, we could go for universal health coverage but if you think your taxes are high now, watch out. If the corporates managed everything, the price would go down but there would be a whole lot of people out there with no coverage. The whole medical coverage issue is just a big mess with doctors getting sued, doctors practicing malpractice, sick people not getting coverage, people getting coverage for free when they should be paying for it, people with lifestyles that guarantee long term medical problems and fraud. YUCK.

So I will do what I always do when faced with an unsolvable mess. I quit. Didn't always but learning how to do it. And I will quit with this advice--Sharon or Peres or somebody said that when a problem proves unsolvable, it is not a problem, it is a fact. The mess that is medical coverage is a fact. So deal with the fact and make it work as well as you can for you.

And I will be your advocate because the young people in this country are getting, and will be, screwed. You are, and will be, paying for my generations and your grandparents generation Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. You shouldn't have to do this but you are and you will. If I were your age I would demand that politicians CUT benefits, not increase them. And if I were your age I would seek out politicians that want to curry your favor, not the favor of some old people with nothing better to do than show up at the polls every two years and vote for more money for them. No surprise here as politicians don't go after your vote because you don't vote, and they know it. Enough of that.

Back to medical coverage for YOU. You have three choices. The first is just get the group medical coverage offered by your company. This is easy and probably not too expensive but remember it ends when your job ends.

The second choice is going with a HSA, short for Health Savings Account which George mentioned in his State of the Union address but you didn't see that so you probably don't know about them. A HSA is made up of two parts--the first part is high deductible, barebones medical coverage also known as catastrophic coverage. You get a cold you are not covered. You get cancer and your are covered. To pay the high deductible you get to set up a tax free savings account that you can use for medical purposes. Simple?  Not really. The paperwork is a bit onerous but worth slogging through because the HSA is portable and cheap and unless you have a bunch of medical problems, you don't go to the doctor much so you don't need a lot of coverage.

The third choice is just to google health insurance and a bunch of companies will pop up. E-mail them and they will ask you some questions, ask for permission to see your medical records and then give you a quote. If you are in your early '20s, healthy with no pre-existing conditions the quote should come in about $60 a month. I know because that is what Margot pays for health insurance. Or you can go to Sam's Club and get a quote from them. The wave of the future.

If for some reason you want to go into more detail, take a look at Category 10.