Risky business

Risky businessInsureBlog is hosting the first-ever Cavalcade of Risk.

Our goal is to help folks understand what risk is, and how to manage it. It's about business and finance, of course, but it's also about risks in our everyday lives and personal relationships.

There are some health care posts, including a strange one (Medical Tough Love) from Jon Swift, a "reasonable conservative" who "gets all [his] news from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Jay Leno monologues."

For example, I have been vaccinated for polio so it's unlikely I'll ever get polio. Right now my insurance premiums go to pay for other people who do get polio, who really should have gotten vaccinated. Is that fair? Why should I pay for expensive drugs for gay people who get AIDS? A much better system would be to have insurance companies sell insurance for different diseases individually. For example, I could elect to buy cancer insurance or heart disease insurance but pass on Avian Flu insurance. The money I might have spent on buying Avian flu insurance that I would never use could go to buying an Ipod or something else I might need. Of course, if I did get Avian flu, a hospital would be perfectly within its rights to turn me away, but that's the risk I took.

Swift thinks his proposal "may even solve our health care crisis." He's worried, too about "vindicative" liberals who may attempt to punish people for expressing silly opinions like his. He better hope his own insurance covers treatments for delusional thoughts and gives him access to a certified heterosexual provider network, else he risks getting an expensive taste of his own medicine.----PS -- The joke's on me! I read through a couple more posts on this blog and realize it's a spoof. Well done!