This is something that we hear all the time; why don’t my insurance company pay for preventative care? Sounds reasonable, if they helped keep us healthier, then it would cost them less in the long run, right? Not so fast. Let’s look at the numbers before we place our bets.
Insurance companies know, from their history, that odds are you are not going to be with them long term. You change employers, you move, some company offers a lower rate, and you are gone, literally.
I think we can all agree that we are not in love with our insurance company, and may change frequently but, we need to understand their position on prevention. Why should one company spend the money to help some other company save money? Try and explain that to the shareholders. Here is where we have to understand that all insurance companies are in business to make money. They are not benevolent societies, they are for-profit corporations.
Now that we understand the economics of prevention from the insurance companies standpoint, we can understand why it is up to us individuals to take care of our own health. Prevention pays it’s dividends back to us in the form of better health and longevity. Think about prevention in your car. You change oil, etc. to make it last longer. We need to do the same thing for our bodies. Would you skip the oil change because somebody else refuses to pay for it. I didn’t think so.
Next time you ask your doctor to do a specific test that you are curious about, or have read about, and he or she refuses, you can understand the ‘why’. No insurance company wants to pay for prevention. After all, you probably won’t be with them in the long run.
