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Shouldn't we take care to draw a distinction between healthcare and health insurance. It seems these days that a lot of people are confused about the distinctio

by zo1 13y ago

Shouldn't we take care to draw a distinction between healthcare and health insurance. It seems these days that a lot of people are confused about the distinction. And it tends to somewhat vary from country to country. Note, I live in South Africa, not the US. Personally, I'd love a comeback of proper health insurance. I.e. where day-to-day healthcare costs are not covered, but only the major items that would really put dents in your wallet. Currently I pay quite a bit for a combination of the two, while I'm convinced that if the two were separated then my costs, as a healthy young adult, would be quite a fair bit lower. Correct me if I'm using the wrong terms/definitions

walshemj 13y ago
That's the point the cost is spread over all the population so that if you do get a health condition later in life it's not just you paying for it. For example just one of my meds for my condition costs nearly £200 for a bottle of 180. It also stops discrimination against those with unlucky genes.
jrochkind1 13y ago
I'm not sure what you mean. In the U.S., most people have health insurance that pays for day to day healthcare costs too. Or at least some of them, when they don't refuse to. "healthcare" just means, well, health services. "health insurance" means a program that collects premiums, and then pays out for certain healthcare costs. Maybe in many countries the health insurance market doesn't generally include policies that pay for regular healthcare costs? If there is even a health insurance market at all? Because the government pays for regular (or all?) health care costs, I guess? The U.S. may be the only developed country without nationalized healthcare. In the U.S., health insurance pays for that stuff. At least in theory, if you're lucky enough to have it, and they don't try to weasel out of paying for it, which they do. But it's not about whether the definition of "health insurance" is that or not. It's "health insurance" if you pay a premium to an insurer, and they do underwriting to decide what that premium should be, and then they pay out for qualifying costs under the policy. If qualifying costs include day-to-day healthcare or not, it depends on the policy, but it's health insurance either way, because that's what 'insurance' means. But I agree with you that a health insurance policy paying for regular expected healthcare costs is weird and different than most insurance markets in a way that makes underwriting weird. It's still the insurance market we've got for health insurance in the US.

by zo1 13y ago

walshemj 13y ago

That's the point the cost is spread over all the population so that if you do get a health condition later in life it's not just you paying for it. For example just one of my meds for my condition costs nearly £200 for a bottle of 180. It also stops discrimination against those with unlucky genes.

jrochkind1 13y ago

I'm not sure what you mean. In the U.S., most people have health insurance that pays for day to day healthcare costs too. Or at least some of them, when they don't refuse to. "healthcare" just means, well, health services. "health insurance" means a program that collects premiums, and then pays out for certain healthcare costs. Maybe in many countries the health insurance market doesn't generally include policies that pay for regular healthcare costs? If there is even a health insurance market at all? Because the government pays for regular (or all?) health care costs, I guess? The U.S. may be the only developed country without nationalized healthcare. In the U.S., health insurance pays for that stuff. At least in theory, if you're lucky enough to have it, and they don't try to weasel out of paying for it, which they do. But it's not about whether the definition of "health insurance" is that or not. It's "health insurance" if you pay a premium to an insurer, and they do underwriting to decide what that premium should be, and then they pay out for qualifying costs under the policy. If qualifying costs include day-to-day healthcare or not, it depends on the policy, but it's health insurance either way, because that's what 'insurance' means. But I agree with you that a health insurance policy paying for regular expected healthcare costs is weird and different than most insurance markets in a way that makes underwriting weird. It's still the insurance market we've got for health insurance in the US.