America’s Healthcare System Is Badly Broken
If we want a properly functioning healthcare system, it should actually be connected to our individual health.
As with some of my other columns, this column will include details about my personal life I normally don’t share. I do here because I want to illustrate how America’s healthcare system is utterly broken. The fact that Democrats under Chuck Schumer have shutdown the federal government over healthcare benefits for illegal immigrants makes my case even more maddening. Let me lay out some healthcare facts about me.
I am 54-years-old. I am 6’2” and weigh 209 pounds. I probably could use losing about nine pounds, but, if you saw me, you’d think I am a fit middle-aged man. I workout every day, spending forty-five minutes on a recumbent bike set at a high resistance level and doing 500 crunches one day followed by doing upper body weights, sixty push-ups, rowing for forty minutes, and running for thirty minutes the next day. In addition to working out daily, I also average 5.5 miles of walking each day (about 12,500 steps). I watch what I eat, consuming five-to-seven fruits/veggies a day with a good balance of protein and carbs. I brush my teeth twice a day and floss, use Stim-U-dent tooth picks, and mouthwash every night before bed to remove all particles from my mouth (mouth health impacts heart health). I usually get six-to-seven hours of sleep a night and plenty of sunshine for Vitamin D.
Here is what I don’t do: I don’t smoke or do drugs. I drink about one alcoholic drink per week, at most. I don’t speed in my car (I drive no more than five miles beyond the speed limit). I don’t engage in any high risk behaviors (cliff jumping, ski diving, etc.). I don’t take any prescription drugs.
From a healthcare standpoint, I undergo an annual physical with blood work every year. My blood work results are always strong. I get the flu shot annually and have gotten the shingles vaccine to ensure I don’t get that nasty virus. I go to the dentist twice a year for checkups and cleanings. I hit the eye doctor annually to ensure my eyes are fine. Finally, I am examined head-to-toe by a dermatologist for skin cancer each year. When I was fifty-years-old, I had both a colonoscopy and endoscopy, with both coming in clean as a whistle. Since at least 2017, I haven’t visited my primary care doctor other than for my annual physical exam, as I rarely get sick enough to justify a visit.
Based on the above, I am the insurance industry’s favorite client because I pay into a system I rarely use other than for preventative purposes. I obviously subsidize the healthcare costs of all of the people who don’t live as I do or who suffer from genetic maladies. Sorry, but that reality sucks. It doesn’t suck because I am unwilling to help cover some of the costs of those less fortunate. It sucks because I have to subsidize the poor decisions of people who choose to put instant gratification ahead of their long-term health.
As with every American, I received my annual estimated premium increase from my healthcare insurer yesterday. My premium is going from $705.88 to $885.64 in 2026, which is a huge 25.5% increase. Since 2023 when my monthly premium was $488.35, my premium has jumped a shocking 81.4% in just three years. That jump has had literally NOTHING to do with my actual health or how I use my healthcare. It isn’t justified by inflation. The only cause of that monstrous hike is the healthcare costs of the people I am forced to subsidize via Obamacare, including illegal immigrants.
Why am I not rewarded AT ALL for being health conscious? Why are unhealthy people (not genetically unlucky people) not penalized for their unhealthy choices? Shouldn’t I get a $100.00 discount off my premium for doing right and they pay a $100.00 penalty for doing wrongly? If we want people to make better choices, shouldn’t we inject into our healthcare system incentives and disincentives to do so? And, yes, I understand that my reward is hopefully a longer, healthier life in which I can do the things I want to do longer and better than those who made poor choices. That benefit shouldn’t cancel out being financially rewarded or penalized every year for the choices we make. If you smoke, drink, or eat too much, you should have to pay more for doing so.
Now, I suppose I could shop around for other plans, but, as you know, doing that runs the risk of losing my primary care doctor and there is nothing harder to do than finding a new primary care physician who is actually accepting new patients. It is harder than summiting Mount Everest. So, I keep my ever-costly healthcare plan and vent via this column. I know I am not alone, as tens of millions of Americans are being hit with similar increases. With an obesity rate north of 40% in America and far too many people smoking, drinking and doing drugs, many of them deserve the hike in premiums. People like me just don’t. If we want a properly functioning healthcare system, it should actually be connected to our individual health. Like car insurance does when those who get in accidents, get speeding tickets, or are caught driving under the influence pay higher rates. Otherwise, it is just like our progressive tax system in which the few pay the tab for the many and well beyond their “fair share,” as welfare mom’s complain about not getting their free stuff.
P.S. Last week, GM announced it is idling its joint venture battery plant with LG Energy Solutions due to the dramatic drop in people buying electric vehicles (EV) now that the federal subsidy is gone. One has to wonder when Honda and LG Energy Solutions will announce the mothballing of the EV battery plant in Fayette County, Ohio, especially since Honda’s line of EVs is very small (and shrinking). Should that occur, it would be yet another JobsOhio failure to accurately predict the market into which it is pouring hundreds of millions of taxpayer funds.
