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Mike Bunch: Irrational health care system needs major overhaul

Mike Bunch  —  11/13/2008 5:30 am

Dear Editor:

The Wisconsin State Journal recently ran an article about how to choose a health insurer. But, instead of helping us through the maze of health care plans, the article about choosing health insurance illustrates the sheer absurdity of our system. High deductible, low deductible, consumer directed, catastrophic, health savings account, PPO, POS, HMO, FSA, HAS. It's a foreign language, designed by insurance companies to describe various ways to deny coverage. The very fact that an "expert" is needed to advise on our selection proves the irrationality of our system.

Do we have to choose a police force? Or a fire protection plan? Or an Army? No. Those entities are designed to provide the exact service we need without our having to predict our future needs. We don't have to guess that we'll be mugged, or in an accident on the interstate, or have a house fire. But for health insurance, we need to know what health calamity is just around the corner to select the plan that will fit us.

To design these complex coverage schemes, to add departments that devise ways to deny coverage, and to require endless and changing accounting systems for providers, insurance companies add 20 to 30 percent to the cost of health care. Medicare administers its plan for 3 percent.

It's time to eliminate the complexity, the uncertainty and the unnecessary costs of health care. Let's start by eliminating those who add nothing to our actual care but who profit from our sickness.

Mike Bunch

Prairie du Sac

Mike Bunch  —  11/13/2008 5:30 am