At breakfast yesterday morning, my wife and I discussed our respective private medical insurance arrangements. As one gets older, these policies tend to rise exponentially in costs, as one is considered a greater risk.
Our discussion revolved around the question of whether we should continue with these insurance policies or whether we should let them lapse and self-insure. It did not take us long to reach the “Yeah – Nah” stage of the discussion.
We plan to continue with private health insurance. The noise level coming from within the public health system at present is such, that we decided dropping our health insurance would be akin to playing Russian Roulette with a six shot revolver, already preloaded with three bullets!
And off to work we went.
No sooner had I started the car and was on my way to the office, National Radio’s Morning Report programme offered its view on the matter we had just discussed. The programme ran an item entitled “Health officials warn government over emergency department targets.“
I am not going to repeat here what I heard. Suffice it to say that the report confirmed our decision, taken over breakfast. But please feel free to listen to the news item yourself. If I had an ounce of confidence left when I hopped into the car, it was most certainly gone by the time the item had concluded.
When I came home yesterday afternoon, I thought I would catch up with the day’s news. I was particularly interested in what had happened at Parliament earlier in the day, as the Treaty Principles Bill was being debated. Another disaster to put it bluntly. But I did not even get as far as that abomination. Another article caught my eye as I opened my tablet. “Health NZ Commissioner steps in to prevent staff loosing Milo“.
Let’s be clear here. I do not begrudge Health staff their tax payer funded Milo. But I can’t help thinking that Dr Lester Levy surely should have a few other priorities, before he gets involved with petty cash expenses. Good governance looks different to me!
So, ladies and gentlemen – what to do?
Well, staying at all costs out of the potential clutches of the Public Health system for any serious infliction looks like a pretty important priority to me.
Part of the answer surely is to further increase one’s 5- + A Day consumption. More vegetables and fruit are clearly the order of the day.
And what are your plans?