Where Brad and Britt Are Wrong

I’ve been listening to the Brad and Britt show for some years now.  I know what I am getting when I turn ’em on.  I’m getting a couple of guys who think they’re center or neutral, think they’re not talking over folks and think they’re right.  What I get though, are some left leaning talk over guys who think they’re right.  Mostly you can only blame ’em for being leftists.  Everyone thinks they’re right and really, it’s a talk show on the radio; they are supposed to be a little bit “jabby”.  So, I know what I’m getting when I turn ’em on.

This morning though, I just went crazy.  They are talking about health care reform and the proposed system and how it’s being compared to auto insurance etc etc.  And so it starts.

Brad begins by trying to pull the analogy by saying that if you only consider folks who do drive cars, then the auto insurance parallel is accurate; we do mandate that all drivers carry car insurance.  In this he’s right.  But he fails to mention that there are three important distinctions:

1. If the cost of owning a car becomes to great [payments, insurance and upkeep] you can opt out and the insurance stops.
2. Really, we are only mandating that you carry insurance to cover THE OTHER GUY.  If you own the car, it is your choice to cover any damage to your actual car itself.  In short, you are allowed the choice to “self insure”.
3. No one is saying that the car insurance folks would be forced to cover “pre-existing conditions.”

I mean really, enough with this car insurance parallel.  Serious, can you imagine how expensive car insurance would be if insurance companies were forced to cover pre-existing conditions on a car?  That they would, for example, be forced to fix a car AFTER it had been in an accident?  Silly.  SImply silly.

But there was more.  The Brad and Britt show had a guest on who claimed that as a 52-year-old man he could get very nice insurance individually that was not outrageously priced.  Let’s check.  When I do this, I like to go here: eHealthInsurance

I am looking for plans in Greensboro for a single 52-year-old man who does not smoke.

Ah, here’s one.  $5000 deductible, Office visits are free after the deductible.  0% coinsurance.  149 a month.  Oh yeah, and you can have an HSA.

Another:  $5000 deductible, $15 office visits and 0% coinsurance.  $229 a month.

One more:  $1250 deductible, office visits are not covered and the coinsurance is 20%.  $253 a month.

Net/net, I don’t know why people think that coverage isn’t affordable.  It is.  It may not be free.  It may not cover every single thing in the whole medical world.  But the whole argument for this reform bill is that “if you get sick or hurt you should not go bankrupt.”  Here ya go.  Buy this policy and you won’t.

Last, Brad and Britt spoke about the fact that people miss allocate their money.  In other words, they aren’t spending wisely.  This resonates with me; I don’t think people budget well.  We spoke about this in a post just a few days ago:  Health Care Lottery.

In short, of people who make less than 10k a year, 46% of them play the lottery.  And they play about $600 a year.  Which, by the way, is the cost of a health insurance plan for a 25-year-old man.

I know what I get when I tune in Brad and Britt.  Today was just too much of it.