Have you had these objections to health insurance?

• I’m healthy and don’t need health insurance
• Insurance is a rip-off
• I would rather take my chances than pay for health insurance

If you were 100 percent sure you or your family will never get sick or injured tomorrow, next week or next month, sure, health insurance would be a rip off. But, are you 100 percent sure? Do you know the future? If you are 100 percent sure that you will never get sick, you should never get insurance!

Unfortunately, no one is brilliant enough to see what tomorrow holds. If you or your family gets ill or is injured, who will pay for it? Do you have $50,000 or $100,000 set aside for such emergencies? And what if the care was life long? What if a family member developed Crone’s disease or diabetes, etc.? Now you need tens of thousands of dollars for life-long care.

I have a friend in Phoenix who, as a young college student, made a simple jump from a hillside and broke his back. He has been in tremendous pain for years. His medications are now costing him $2,000 a month. (By the way, he strongly believes in insurance.)

Consequence of not being insured

One study concluded that the uninsured are three times likelier to die earlier than those insured. The study, by the Center for Health Policy at Georgetown University, involved 592,598 hospitalized people nationwide in 1987. It concluded, “…in 13 of 16 patient groups matched for age, sex, and race, researchers found the uninsured were sicker when they arrived at the hospital, as evidenced by their 44 percent to 124 percent greater likelihood of dying at that time.”

Even more startling was the finding that the uninsured were “…29 percent to 75 percent less likely to undergo each of five medical procedures that were costly or that allowed a wide degree of discretion in deciding whether they were needed.” Doctors and hospitals hesitate to perform expensive tests or procedures if the patient can’t pay.

To recap: These are all very real questions of real situations that happen every day. The very existence of insurance companies is proof that insurance is meeting very real needs. It is important that all of us, especially overseas workers, have good health insurance.