Healthcare and the Circus Mentality

I was sitting here this morning....reading through the news and various forums....and this little personal story popped up.

It's about this guy....who got the note from his healthcare insurance folks.  They noted the old policy is going away.  He was happy with the $500 a month old plan, and it's yearly deductible of $3000.  It was acceptable.

The new deal?  Well....it kinda stayed around $500 a month, but the deductible went up to $10,000 for the family package.  It means....he'd have to find another seven thousand bucks....to stay alive through 2014, before any of the insurance ($6000 for the entire year) would kick in to help him.

It's seven thousand that he doesn't have.  It's seven thousand of debt that he has to absorb somewhere.  It's seven thousand of less money for other things (vacations, new refrigerator, replacement car, weekend trips to the mountains, or new mattress for the bed).

He's angry.  He's frustrated.  He's asking questions.  He'd like to know who gets the blame.

Across the nation, I'd take a guess at fifty million who will fall into this pit for 2014.  Sadly, it only gets worse as we get to July, and the newer rates for 2015 come out.  They will....absolutely will....be higher.

The thing is....as bad as we were in 2008 with thirty million unhappy people complaining about health care options in America....over the next year....we will have around a hundred million Americans who complain about the deductible situation, limited doctors or hospitals in their areas, and fewer options in their future.

The truth?  We just invented a bigger mess.  It's like everyone whining that we'd really like to have a circus come and visit our little town.....then on that fateful day....the circus finally arrives, and Larry the lion escapes to terrorize the town over an entire evening....killing and maiming dozens before calm returns.

In this case....we've got at least a thousand Larry the lions who've escaped from the traveling circus, terrorizing the nation, with the mayor and chief of police talking up "if you like the lions, they can stay"....and the only weapon we've got to defend ourselves is a BB-gun.  Frankly, something is wrong here.