| Cycle Touring Health & Medical Issues |
| Cycle Touring Health | Medical Insurance |
Health insurance is the one issue more than any
other that will keep those who dream of traveling
glued to their easy chair. Responsible people are
fully insured. Those who fail to cover themselves
from all the eventualities of life in a blanket policy
of protection are either losers or foolish. Right?
Well, after leaving all of the fringe benefits of our
corporate jobs and traveling to places where
health insurance for local people did not exist, we
realized that risk was part of life, as unavoidable
as breathing.
How Risky Are You?
Insurance is the pooling of risk, putting it together
then selling it off to everyone in the group with a bit
of profit thrown in. The problem lies in the way
medical insurance is pooled.
Most kinds of insurance combine similar people
together. For instance, car policies unite all the
people in a particular age group and gender with
similar driving records. Those who have never
had an accident or speeding ticket go together
with others like them. Convicted drunk drivers are
pooled together and charged a higher premium.
Health insurance only pools by age and gender.
So if you are a thirty-year-old woman you are
linked with others women of the same age group
regardless of health condition. Even if you eat only
nutritional foods, do not smoke, exercise every
day, and have an altogether healthy genetic
makeup your risk is combined with those who eat
four meals a day of fast-food, smoke like a
chimney, never exercise and are genetically
predisposed to disease. In essence, healthy
people subsidize the unhealthy.
Is this fair? Many argue that medical care is a
fundamental part of any good society. If the
healthy did not subsidize the unhealthy then how
would the system function? But they are missing
an important point.
Is Medical Insurance Good For You?
Not long after setting out on this new life we found
ourselves traveling in countries where there was
no safety net. If the local people we met became
sick or injured, they had to pay for medical
services themselves.
Perversely, we found that these uninsured people
were far healthier than those from the First-World.
Granted, some of the unhealthfullness of the
developed world is caused by prosperity. But the
damage done by this affluenza - the ability of the
individual to buy whatever food, drink, or smoke he
wants whenever he wants it - should be negated
by better access to health care. The rich should
be healthier because they can see a doctor
whenever they need one. But the reverse is true.
Those with better access to medical care are
more often than not, sicker.
This was a real mystery to us. Why are people in
the so called Third World healthier, when their
access to high quality medical care is limited and
they live with little or no social safety net?
Is it possible that health insurance itself causes
unhealthy behaviors? Does having medical
coverage make you sick?
Mind-Body and Health Insurance
Physicians often refer to their patients will-to-live
as the most important element in a successful
treatment. They recognize that an optimistic
attitude trumps all other factor in determining who
will respond positively to a particular therapy.
They acknowledge, in a roundabout way, the
mind's ability cure the body.
Lance Armstrong's phenomenal recovery from
testicular and brain cancer is credited more to his
strong will-power than to any other factor.
Yet medical insurance encourages the exact
opposite. It fosters a "use it or lose it" attitude in
the insured person. They get nothing from their
policy unless they become ill or injured. It is the
sickest person who gets the best deal. Everyone
else feels they are paying all those premiums for
nothing so they get sick to use what they are
paying for anyway. When was the last time you
lost a sick day at work because you didn't use it?
Feeling swindled by health insurance is not the
only problem. Many recognize a moment in their
life when they were simply unable to be sick. For
me it was finals week at university. My mind told
my body "you cannot get sick now," and somehow
I would fight off an impending flu until the last exam
was complete. The moment I left the classroom I
began to feel the symptoms coming on. The next
morning I was curled up in bed. When this
happened to me two semesters in a row I knew my
mind had the power to control illness in my body.
Medical coverage diminishes the need for the
mind to make the body well.
Doubters need not look far for evidence to prove
this theory. In the United States those with the
best medical coverage, paid sick leave, and
generous pensions are government employees,
who also happen to be some of the least healthy
people in the entire world. The U.S. is home to
many of the finest medical facilities in the world
and health coverage has opened them up to nearly
everyone. Yet it is here in the United States for the
first time in human history that a child born today
has a shorter life expectancy than his or her
parent. Let me repeat that. A child born today in
the world wealthiest country is, for the first time in
human history, expected to live fewer years than
his parents. Something has got to be wrong.
If medical coverage encourages the insured to be
unhealthy and inhibits the mind's ability to bring the
body back to healthfullness, then it must be
possible to do the opposite. Surely we can put
ourselves in situations where we have no other
choice but to be healthy.
For us, self-insurance has allowed us to do just
that. If we must go to the doctor, we pay for it
ourselves. If we get ill, we try to fight the illness
without medication. We take responsible for
ourselves and are stronger for it in the long run.
Despite the fact that we are traveling almost
exclusively in Third World we rarely get sick. We
eat a healthy diet, exercise every day and, like
Lance Armstrong, believe in our ability to make
ourselves healthy.
Since leaving our corporate jobs and setting out
on this new life we have come face-to-face with
risks we had never anticipated and are healthier
than ever before. Living beyond the world where
everything is guaranteed, insured and sealed for
our own protection has given us a new
appreciation of our own innate abilities. It has
allowed us to see that we are capable, like the
vast majority of uninsured people world-wide, to
maintain heath on our own terms.
For those who dream of travel but are glued to
their easy chair by comprehensive medical
coverage we encourage you to stand up and step
out into the real world where a little bit of risk is not
such a bad thing.
other that will keep those who dream of traveling
glued to their easy chair. Responsible people are
fully insured. Those who fail to cover themselves
from all the eventualities of life in a blanket policy
of protection are either losers or foolish. Right?
Well, after leaving all of the fringe benefits of our
corporate jobs and traveling to places where
health insurance for local people did not exist, we
realized that risk was part of life, as unavoidable
as breathing.
How Risky Are You?
Insurance is the pooling of risk, putting it together
then selling it off to everyone in the group with a bit
of profit thrown in. The problem lies in the way
medical insurance is pooled.
Most kinds of insurance combine similar people
together. For instance, car policies unite all the
people in a particular age group and gender with
similar driving records. Those who have never
had an accident or speeding ticket go together
with others like them. Convicted drunk drivers are
pooled together and charged a higher premium.
Health insurance only pools by age and gender.
So if you are a thirty-year-old woman you are
linked with others women of the same age group
regardless of health condition. Even if you eat only
nutritional foods, do not smoke, exercise every
day, and have an altogether healthy genetic
makeup your risk is combined with those who eat
four meals a day of fast-food, smoke like a
chimney, never exercise and are genetically
predisposed to disease. In essence, healthy
people subsidize the unhealthy.
Is this fair? Many argue that medical care is a
fundamental part of any good society. If the
healthy did not subsidize the unhealthy then how
would the system function? But they are missing
an important point.
Is Medical Insurance Good For You?
Not long after setting out on this new life we found
ourselves traveling in countries where there was
no safety net. If the local people we met became
sick or injured, they had to pay for medical
services themselves.
Perversely, we found that these uninsured people
were far healthier than those from the First-World.
Granted, some of the unhealthfullness of the
developed world is caused by prosperity. But the
damage done by this affluenza - the ability of the
individual to buy whatever food, drink, or smoke he
wants whenever he wants it - should be negated
by better access to health care. The rich should
be healthier because they can see a doctor
whenever they need one. But the reverse is true.
Those with better access to medical care are
more often than not, sicker.
This was a real mystery to us. Why are people in
the so called Third World healthier, when their
access to high quality medical care is limited and
they live with little or no social safety net?
Is it possible that health insurance itself causes
unhealthy behaviors? Does having medical
coverage make you sick?
Mind-Body and Health Insurance
Physicians often refer to their patients will-to-live
as the most important element in a successful
treatment. They recognize that an optimistic
attitude trumps all other factor in determining who
will respond positively to a particular therapy.
They acknowledge, in a roundabout way, the
mind's ability cure the body.
Lance Armstrong's phenomenal recovery from
testicular and brain cancer is credited more to his
strong will-power than to any other factor.
Yet medical insurance encourages the exact
opposite. It fosters a "use it or lose it" attitude in
the insured person. They get nothing from their
policy unless they become ill or injured. It is the
sickest person who gets the best deal. Everyone
else feels they are paying all those premiums for
nothing so they get sick to use what they are
paying for anyway. When was the last time you
lost a sick day at work because you didn't use it?
Feeling swindled by health insurance is not the
only problem. Many recognize a moment in their
life when they were simply unable to be sick. For
me it was finals week at university. My mind told
my body "you cannot get sick now," and somehow
I would fight off an impending flu until the last exam
was complete. The moment I left the classroom I
began to feel the symptoms coming on. The next
morning I was curled up in bed. When this
happened to me two semesters in a row I knew my
mind had the power to control illness in my body.
Medical coverage diminishes the need for the
mind to make the body well.
Doubters need not look far for evidence to prove
this theory. In the United States those with the
best medical coverage, paid sick leave, and
generous pensions are government employees,
who also happen to be some of the least healthy
people in the entire world. The U.S. is home to
many of the finest medical facilities in the world
and health coverage has opened them up to nearly
everyone. Yet it is here in the United States for the
first time in human history that a child born today
has a shorter life expectancy than his or her
parent. Let me repeat that. A child born today in
the world wealthiest country is, for the first time in
human history, expected to live fewer years than
his parents. Something has got to be wrong.
If medical coverage encourages the insured to be
unhealthy and inhibits the mind's ability to bring the
body back to healthfullness, then it must be
possible to do the opposite. Surely we can put
ourselves in situations where we have no other
choice but to be healthy.
For us, self-insurance has allowed us to do just
that. If we must go to the doctor, we pay for it
ourselves. If we get ill, we try to fight the illness
without medication. We take responsible for
ourselves and are stronger for it in the long run.
Despite the fact that we are traveling almost
exclusively in Third World we rarely get sick. We
eat a healthy diet, exercise every day and, like
Lance Armstrong, believe in our ability to make
ourselves healthy.
Since leaving our corporate jobs and setting out
on this new life we have come face-to-face with
risks we had never anticipated and are healthier
than ever before. Living beyond the world where
everything is guaranteed, insured and sealed for
our own protection has given us a new
appreciation of our own innate abilities. It has
allowed us to see that we are capable, like the
vast majority of uninsured people world-wide, to
maintain heath on our own terms.
For those who dream of travel but are glued to
their easy chair by comprehensive medical
coverage we encourage you to stand up and step
out into the real world where a little bit of risk is not
such a bad thing.
Cycle Touring Health & Safety > Medical Insurance
| A Note To Those Thinking of Purchasing Travel Medical Insurance |
Travel insurance policies may not be all that they
seem to be. For most plans that million dollar
policy limit is a facade.
We heard about a guy who broke his leg while
backpacking in Vietnam. His travel insurance
provider offered to reimburse him $200 for the flight
to the closest first-world medical facility in Bangkok.
His spouse had to pay her own way. Once in
Bangkok the company covered the initial
consultation with doctor of their choosing. The
doctor determined that his injury would require
extensive medical care.
So the insurance company refused to pay for any
additional care in Bangkok, electing instead to offer
reimbursement for his flight home. Knowing that
coverage would end the moment he set foot on
home soil the backpacker refused and the
company, in return, promptly cancelled the policy for
failure to heed their advice.
In short, that million dollar travel medical policy is
really limited to the cost of getting the injured
person stabilized and home.
seem to be. For most plans that million dollar
policy limit is a facade.
We heard about a guy who broke his leg while
backpacking in Vietnam. His travel insurance
provider offered to reimburse him $200 for the flight
to the closest first-world medical facility in Bangkok.
His spouse had to pay her own way. Once in
Bangkok the company covered the initial
consultation with doctor of their choosing. The
doctor determined that his injury would require
extensive medical care.
So the insurance company refused to pay for any
additional care in Bangkok, electing instead to offer
reimbursement for his flight home. Knowing that
coverage would end the moment he set foot on
home soil the backpacker refused and the
company, in return, promptly cancelled the policy for
failure to heed their advice.
In short, that million dollar travel medical policy is
really limited to the cost of getting the injured
person stabilized and home.
