As if buying personal health insurance wasn't bad enough, there's something about the entire process that's just ALL wrong!
First of all, the process is rather similar to winning the lottery; remember from a few days ago your odds of winning the lottery? Well, getting health insurance is not at all different. You fill out a form, then you get a phone call from a "nurse" at the carrier asking about that bruise you received on the playground 40 years ago and if it affects the way you walk today. About two weeks from this nerve-racking conversation with the carrier's nurse, you get a phone call from your agent telling you wether or not you won the "lottery"; if you didn't, you get to start the process all over.
Of course, if you're employed your employer gets insurance for you, you just have to decide among the several confusing policies your company decided to use with said carrier which one is best for you and your family. Not an easy task.
However, if you're self-employed and are on your own when it comes to getting insurance, you begin to see how insurance companies work and why the American public is so livid with them. You receive this first glimpse when you start filling out the form mentioned earlier. They ask you if you smoke. Do you drink? Do you take illegal drugs? (You think if I did, I'd be telling you!?) The point is, I, for one, swim two miles twice a week. I work out on most of the other days. Do they ever ask me that? NO. Do they ask me my average heart rate? NO. Do they ask me anything about what I do for prevention? NO.
The system is backwards; they only ask questions in an attempt to preclude them from giving you insurance. That really doesn't seem fair.
What are some of the healthy habits you have that you wish the insurance companies would ask you about?