Monday, December 05, 2016

UnAffordable Health "Care"

Years ago, my parents bought a small piece of property. I don't recall the particulars, but it was part of a larger parcel which was divvied up. The idea was that property always increases in value, so it was a "safe" investment.

Problem was, the whole thing was kind of "landlocked" such that it was pretty much unusable and undevelopable. Nevertheless, the folks had to keep paying the property taxes on it or it would be forfeit (which I'm not altogether sure wouldn't have been just as well).

Reason I bring this up is that sometimes owning something isn't really that beneficial, especially when one has to keep pouring more money down the hole, with only the vague promise that it would one day be utile.

And so it is becoming [ed: has become?] with ObamaPlans: as we've pointed out before, just because you buy an ObamaPlan doesn't mean that you can afford to actually use it.

Case in point:

"Twenty percent of Ohio adults reported that they or a household member go without medical care because of the cost even though more than 90 percent of them have health insurance"

The problem is that the steep "barrier to entry" that is the deductible (and then co-insurance) renders plans pretty much unusable (well, except for free birth control convenience items and the like). This is really just an extension of something we've been saying for many years here at IB: health care ≠ health insurance. That is, just because one has purchased a health insurance plan doesn't mean that one can then afford to actually use it.

Quite the conundrum.

[Hat Tip: Jennifer A]
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