Health Insurance Rant

What we have here is not he "best." We have totally fucked up the market for health care and services here.

What you have is a fantasy. You have been running increasing amounts of debt for decades. That game would have ended within the last decade, if not for the Bank of Canada stepping in to monetize more and more debt (which in turn has created a huge housing bubble and dangerous levels of consumer debt throughout the country -- the collateral damage of that). Consumer debt levels in your country through the roof. ... on top of governments at the local and Federal level that has run up debt that exceeds your gross domestic product paying for socialized fantasies. That can't go on forever. Ask Greece. The flip side to me is that Canadians think they have something wonderful, when in essence they are living off a credit card that is beyond its limit without interest ate manipulation as a central bank tries to inflate away the massive debts that have been accumulated. And for it? Doctor shortages, waits in emergency rooms in major cities and rationing. It's universal for sure, though.

 

Can they fit you in before 2080? Or will you be doing a Danny Williams?

 

I felt bad. The person on the other end of the phone is just answering a phone all day. I didn't want to take it out on her. But I did do: "You realize how ridiculous this is, right?" No, she didn't.

"Take any for profit business. A potential customer calls and says, "I am interested in your product. How much does it cost? And they respond, 'I can't tell you that.' It's as if you are trying to drive away potential customers."

 

That is true, actually. But those are big ticket items, usually, aren't they? Like if you call a Porsche dealer. And isn't the reason that it is negotiable, so they want to set the parameters for haggling on a price?

I called two other insurance companies so far, including the company I currently I am insured by. I had no problem getting the info I needed. "How much is the premium"? got an immediate answer. Nothing about this transaction is negotiable. They have a plan. The plan has a set rate. It SHOULD be no different than buying a gallon of milk for me. Also, someone else is going to call me back supposedly (although I tried that once already and never received a call). So this has nothing to do with not wanting to give me the premium over the phone. It's about some inefficient process of making me wait to talk to a specific person on the phone. ... when I had one simple question: "What is the premium?"

 

Is there a reason that you are aware of -- like a special circumstance of some sort? My car insurance has always been done right over the phone.

 

Edit: Also, yeah, you need to give them info (fill out forms) on car insurance to get a premium. It's a different animal. It depends on the car, your driving record, where you live, your credit, any safety discounts, etc. None of that is in play on my health insurance premium. They offer a couple of cookie cutter plans -- one size fits all. I called about one of them. The premium is the premium.