Health Insurance Has Nothing to do With Health

You can not and should not depend on your health insurance to keep you healthy. Health insurance has nothing to do with health. A good comparison would be to compare health insurance to life insurance. Life insurance has nothing to do with keeping you alive. If  you are depending on your health insurance to keep you healthy, you have to change your mindset. There will be things that come along that will be healthy for you, but may not be covered by health insurance. Health is your responsibility and yours alone.

Storytime

Recently I had a patient who very obviously had a torn rotator cuff. In a situation like this the standard protocol is to send the patient for a MRI to confirm the diagnosis, and after confirmation the patient would see a surgeon to get it corrected. Well, this patients insurance plan would not authorize the MRI until after 6 weeks of conservative treatment! I am as conservative as it comes when it comes to managing injuries, but this person really needed surgery! It is crazy that health insurance companies are now dictating what patient’s can and can not have performed. They make these decisions not based on what is best for the patient, but what is best for the insurance companies pocketbook.

This is just one example. Everyday in my practice I see things like this. Let’s talk about maintenance care. Mainteanace care is what we call it when you are healthy, but still decide to get adjusted on a regular basis because it helps you to STAY healthy. This is a non-covered service by many health insurance companies because they want to keep money in their pockets. What they don’t realize is that by being proactive and taking care of your health BEFORE it becomes a crisis saves EVERYONE money!

Being sick is always more expensive than being healthy…in more ways than just dollars and cents.

Conclusion

Health Insurance can be great in regards to health crisis and sickness, but when it  comes keeping you healthy it is not the job of your insurance. Be responsible for you health and seek out ways to increase health in a proactive manner…not just as a reaction to being sick.

Dr. Steven Bourdage DC

Serving Sauganash, Lincolnwood, Skokie, Chicago and the surrounding area since 2008!