September 26, 2012 at 11:18 pm
#17069
maester_miller
Participant
You could also make the comparison to a subscription service, like Netflix or something. Because you pay Netflix a monthly premium regardless of the amount of movies you watch, you are tempted to watch as many movies as possible in order to “get your moneys worth.” If Netflix charged you per movie watched, you would probably watch fewer.
The same idea with health “insurance” in that it’s really more of a subscription/membership service than insurance (by any traditional definition). You pay monthly premiums rather than per visit/procedure/etc, so you are motivated to have more visits, procedures than you otherwise might.