Ellen Goodman’s column headlined “Newborns, moms don’t deserve the bum’s rush” (Op-Ed, July 11) does make a valid point. But, more important, it misses the essence of what health insurance is about.
Since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we have become increasingly dependent on insurance companies to take care of our every health need. This dependency has been nurtured and encouraged by the insurance industry and the government. And insurance companies are now expected to pay for health services that are truly not insurable.
There are many examples, but maternity is classic. Most pregnancies lead to a child being born six to eight months after knowledge of the pregnancy. This is not, then, an unexpected event.
I do not want to defend insurance companies, but if an insurance company has absolute knowledge that an event is going to take place that it has contracted to pay for, it must collect enough money to pay for that event, as well as pay for its fixed costs, and have some money left for profit. We can certainly ask how much profit is reasonable, but we should not expect an insurance company to collect $100 in premiums and pay $1,000 in benefits on something that is inevitable.
The question of who is ultimately going to pay for the mandated 48 hours hospital stay in New Jersey and Maryland must be entertained. If an insurance company is forced to allow women to stay for a minimum time after delivery, they will be forced to collect enough premium to cover that expense. How long will a company insure when it can no longer make a profit? I hope that our society will realize that insurance companies cannot provide “something for nothing” and that only unexpected occurrences can truly be insured.
If we want a service, such as a certain hospital stay for maternity, we must be prepared to pay, either directly out of pocket or in an insurance premium. If we are not willing to pay monetarily, we will pay in loss of personal freedom.
