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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (130532)	2/9/2010 12:56:55 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541982

Insurance companies manage and spread risk wrt fire, earthquake, flood, etc, etc. No one knows when and if tragedy will strike. And health insurance companies spread/manage risks/costs to things like heart attacks, cancer, etc. The difference with health insurance is that it is often used to handle ordinary expenses. I suppose that's fine if people want to pay for it (except that I think the isolation of the consumer from the direct cost, drives cost increases), but it probably really isn't worth it for many people. That's why I'm a fan of catastrophic health care insurance combines with some form of health care savings. I don't see any good reason to give health insurance companies a cut for the ordinary, relatively predictable, and relatively low costs. For that part I agree with you that they probably provide little (net) benefit.