All I Want For Christmas is My Two Front Teeth...or Perhaps Some Preventative Dental Care

Looking for that perfect Christmas gift for your twenty-something son or daughter? Stumped what to get sis for Hanukkah?

Well, the good folks at Highmark have the answer: healthcare gift cards, good for use on a range of healthcare needs, from dental care to prescription drugs, glasses to gall stone removal surgery. It's the all purpose gift, according to their website, the perfect choice for a thank you, a college graduation, and those December holidays.

I can't believe this is what we've come to: healthcare as a stocking stuffer.

I think what I find most unsettling is the fact that giving the gift of healthcare is just not quite as ridiculous as it ought to be.

After all, if you're one of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, you might just prefer a visit to the doctor under the tree over yet another ugly sweater. And if you were one of the 60 percent of Americans hit with higher healthcare expenses this year [PDF], a little help might be a better solution than delaying doctor's visits or trying to stretch your medication.

And if you think you don't need it, you might want to check with your HR department. According to Mercer Health & Benefits, next year, more than half of U.S. companies plan to save money by requiring that their employees make a larger premium contribution or pay higher deductibles, co-pays or out-of-pocket contributions for their healthcare coverage.

Clearly, this gift card is the very clever product of some marketing minds who realized that unless we fundamentally change our healthcare system, the potential customer base for this product -- the uninsured and under-insured - will continue to grow.

As William Custer, director of the Center for Health Services Research at Georgia State University in Atlanta, said in the Wall Street Journal recently, "I assume there will be a demand for it, but it's a niche product."

Forty-seven million. That is one heckuva niche.

My only hope is that anyone who decides that this is exactly what their loved one needs is struck by the absurdity of our current system, and starts asking themselves why Washington hasn't done something to change it. Because if holiday gift cards are the future of healthcare, I can think of a few politicians who deserve nothing but coal in their stockings this Christmas.

Comments

[Citizenofreality]

Most gift cards are sold in the $50.00-$100.00 price range. What is that going to get you at the dentist's office? Two rolls of cinnamon dental floss and a toothbrush with a gum pick on the end?

[Noelle]

Gawd we live in a sick f#@king country....NO pun intended.

[SmallvilleSC]

A few years back my home state (and employer) offered dental insurance for the first time with R.E.Harrington (if I remember correctly).

Payments were quite reasonable for the family plan and completely paid for two dental appointments for each family member every year.
In fact, with a family (and even an individual for that matter) the payments over a year's time made up for the expense of biannual regular visits. Fantastic!

Any dental work and / or surgery were also reasonable with the co-pay. There were few hassles concerning the dental fees. Outstanding!

To review: regular check-ups paid for by insurance; any work reasonably paid for with little, or any co-pay; little paperwork (just sign your name on one form); oh, and you got to go to your own dentist. It was great.

Then some ya-hoo in the state legislature decided to run it by BCBS of SC (which hadn't had a dental plan at the time but got the contract anyway - you know the deal - by bundling services the state got a better deal) where they upped the premiums and "co-pays"; paid next to nothing on regular visits; and, oh yeah, if you need any dental work you'll wonder why the hell you have insurance that pays next to nothing.

Preventative insurance was great. It's just too bad that it didn't stay around.

Can you imagine it? We had a plan that worked preventively. Then it was replaced by one that hardly pays at all.

[cktirumalai]

It cannot be denied that American business will try anything to plug a hole in the market. Some innovations will prove to be Edsels.