What happened to this guy?!

I am blown away by this. I love what Bush says here. I just can't believe how he did the exact opposite.

(oh the sound is kinda weird... if you are listening with earbuds, you'll want to have them both in)

Rock chip repair and health care.

Have you ever seen the booths on the side of the road offering "Free rock chip repair?" Too good to be true? It is true, you pay nothing out of your pocket.

How is it so? Many of you already know the answer, the chip repair companies don't charge you because they charge your car insurance company. Hey, you're paying for insurance so, sweet, take advantage of what you can.

What the guy at the booth isn't telling you is the amount they are charging the insurance company. He doesn't need to, right? It's free for you, and that is all that matters. Well, it does matter, he is easily charging the insurance company 2x or 3x what he would charge you if you paid in cash. But again, you don't care about the price b/c it is free to you.

What happens if a lot of people start taking advantage of this amazing deal? The insurance companies would see an increase in their costs. Do you think they would just say, "oh, well it looks like we aren't going to make as much money this year b/c of this whole rock chip repair thing... oh well?" Not at all. They will raise their premiums.

Let's say that before this whole scheme started, one could have a chip repaired for $15, but since they are now charging the insurance companies they charge them $45 (remember to those insured customers it is "free"). What about those few whose car insurance doesn't cover rock chip repair want the service? Will the rock chip guy want to fix theirs for $15 cash when they could just find some guy with insurance and charge $45? No, they will raise their prices because a $15 job is a waste of their time.

Now draw the comparison with health care:

Medicare and Medicaid are two programs where the beneficiaries pay nothing and the tax-payers foot the bill. Now, do these patients care about the price their doctor is charging the gov't? Not in the least... to them it is free, so what do you think the doctors will do? Right, raise prices.

Now, not all of the blame goes to these two gov't programs. No, it is you and me, the insured, who are participating in almost the same practice. I the 70s the gov't gave companies a tax incentive to offer health insurance for their employees. It is now the practice of most firms to have some type of benefits.

For those of you that are insured, how much does it cost you to go see the doctor? Do you know the bill? What does the doctor charge? Your likely answer is, "I don't know, I just pay a $20 copay." Ah, so we insured also don't care what the cost is, do we. Do we choose doctors on a tradeoff of price and skill? No, we don't care about the price.

Again, what happens to those who are uninsured? They pay the higher prices that result from the price insensitivity in the market.

My proposal: Treat health insurance like term life. Insurance would cover catastrophic events (e.g. cancer, heart-attack, etc) but not the normal doctor visits or even a broken bone. Doctors would be in competition for their patients and would be again competing with price, and as a result, costs would go down.

Competition brings low prices and good service, see below.