http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/04/AR2008040403803_3.html?hpid=smartliving&sub=AR&sid=ST2008040601449 is an article worth reading. Assessing the lifetime "costs" of endless preventive testing, the article notes that much of this testing is neither statistically justified nor cost effective. Now, of course, it mirrors what I've said but there is more because it presents a challenge to insurance companies...are the sick really costing more than their overly "screened" healthy counterparts over a lifetime? The article implies, likely NOT. After all, eventually everyone gets sick. The answer may be that the healthy, fearful, hyper-vigilant hypochondriacs who use their insurance coverage for fluffy "prevention" might actually be draining those precious premium dollar percentages that are actually used for helping people pay for medical care. We've already been informed by the insurance industry that less than half of our premium dollars go to utilization (see earlier blog of February 29 for citation)...paying for medical treatments and preventive services.
The article does NOT dismiss all preventive care and it shouldn't. However, the insurance industry MUST include the overall utilization by individuals because our current health care system has a large segment of people who are for lack of a better term I am going to call these individuals, PERMA-PATIENTS, permanent patients addicted to medical services. These are the people who go for all screenings, have several prescriptions and recite about the efficacy of each, refer to physicians as "my" doctor, and always decide that for "a $15 co-pay I may as well go, right?" Uh, no. You my friend are services addicted, you are a PERMA-PATIENT and like the superstitions that have plagued us all over our lives, somewhere along the line you became dependent on having someone else tell you that you're okay. And within this group are often the most judgmental critics of others, populations that do not want to have to pay for YOUR fill in the blank...tanning, smoking, motorcycle driving. Well, then in this case, nobody should be paying for their addiction to physicians.
It is time for the insurance companies to address this population and their costs because it might very well support these perma-patients (people who only feel secure when they are under some doctor's care) in getting some psychological counseling (at least 10 sessions for a copay of $25).
