Does Your Health-Care Cost More Than Your Mortgage?
Maybe plenty of people are happy with their health-care plans---but don't count the Denverites interviewed by The Associated Press among them. The AP writes: "Looking for happy faces? Don't go near employer health fairs in the coming months." Many workers, it turns out, are getting fewer services at a time when their health-insurance premiums are rising.
At a fair for Denver city and county employees, 37-year-old Abraham Patino discovered his healthy family of four will pay more for health insurance than the home mortgage: "In the 10 years I've worked here, it's doubled like four times."
Women are also taking the brunt. They pay up to 50 percent more than men for the "same coverage," writes The Denver Post, supposedly because they tend to go to the doctor more often than men. Critics label the process, called "gender-rating," sexual discrimination.
Meanwhile, experts recently gathered in Greeley to share their ideas for how to reform the nation's health-care system, debating the issues of quality and accessibility, writes The Greeley Tribune.
And in a story that's breaking this morning, businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under a reform bill being prepared for Senate debate, writes the AP, but large firms could be forced to pay penalties if their workers require government subsidies to buy coverage on their own.
Comments
Submitted by Wellescent Health Blog (not verified) on Mon, 2009-10-26 16:54.
While the headline is interesting in terms of ballparking the amount people pay, it also highlights the important differences between the systems. With a mortgage payment, you can extend the term longer and longer to obtain a payment more in line with what you can afford. You also have the option of choosing a cheaper place to live in the first place.
Health care is unlike a mortgage in both ways. You would be unlikely to find an insurance program that lets you pay for your health costs over time after the fact and you will never get to choose the manner in which you become ill. As a result, comparing these two forms of debt shows just how poor a fit many aspects of health care are to pure free market approaches.

