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Capitalism succeeds if you are fit, healthy, agile, young and educated with everything going your way to be a productive member of society without being too much of a burden on the state.
This is how insurance and pension schemes operate. As long as you are good to go, people will invest in you in the workplace and not ask too many questions in giving you cover, although first-time drivers are seen as risky by insurance companies.
Younger drivers tend to drive too fast, have trouble parking and reversing – maybe that says more about the driving test than those behind the wheel – and have a higher probability of pranging their vehicle.
Insurance companies don’t like unpredictable, be it people or the weather, because it cost too much – they want certainty and people who pay regularly but never get into trouble.
But the world is random, dangerous and volatile. Things happen that can or can’t be avoided – the environment we live in – human nature itself – cannot be reduced to a mathematical equation or probability.
Nevertheless, insurance companies base their outlook on risk assessment, statistical frequency, worse case scenarios and of course profit.
Number crunchers don’t gamble, they don’t get emotional, it’s all about the facts and data, there are no second chances only higher premiums.
Insurance and pension funds are a business, they make money by taking people out of the equation to replace them with formulas, scenarios or hypothesis.
Be it health care, car insurance or home security, it’s the numbers that count on how your situation is classified and what category of risk you fall under.
For those who are poor, jobless and homeless, they don’t even get to be assessed before being able to step on the insurance ladder.
Without collateral, there is no safety net, apart from a rudimentary social welfare system that isn’t a million miles away from the Victorian poor house.
However well-meaning Cypriots are toward those who have no foothold or stake in society the game is already over – survival is the only bonus they are going to receive.
Experience tells us that life has many secret weapons to trip us up along our journey, so many take out insurance to protect us from a rainy day.
As we get older, many of us worry about our health with private insurance seeming a good idea – for those who can afford it – due to the dysfunctional state of Cyprus hospitals.
Being the wrong side of middle age, having healthcare options makes sense to avoid being on an endless hospital waiting list.
Arguably the sorry state of the Cyprus health system is exactly what the doctor ordered for insurance companies who thrive on disillusionment with state hospitals undermined by an apparent lack of the “patient-comes-first” ethos.
Even casual observers of the arguments swirling around the introduction of a universal national health service would be dumbstruck that the rows involving doctors and insurance companies centre around money – not what’s best for the patient.
Healthcare is big business, but in Cyprus, it is more about vested interests rather than providing a world-class system that we can be proud of.
What we have at the moment is one big plaster unable to cover the widening cracks in our crisis-hit hospitals.
As a rule, if people pay, they usually receive a better standard of care but there should no visible divide in the treatment offered between state and private hospitals.
The standard of care should be of the highest order across the board with only the extras – such as privacy, food menu, satellite TV – being the difference.
In an ideal world, private health care wouldn’t be necessary but how else would big corporations cash in.
Cyprus has got it right by trying to merge the private and public health sector to give Cypriots more choice and access to the best treatment, equipment and medical options.
The sick should not suffer because they have no access to proper health care and people are suffering from illness and disease when a more effective system could ease that pain.
Like I said before, insurance companies, contrary to belief, are averse to risk which is why I have been exiled from a health plan as I might need more medical help in the future.
I have been politely asked to sign a form that reduces my health insurance coverage just in case I actually might need emergency medical care. Isn’t this why people have insurance in the first place – in case of the unexpected.
Basically, I’m a defective human being that is only getting older and may not function to perfection as the years roll on – making me a high-risk individual with a (recently discovered) congenital heart condition that is no longer a good investment.
My condition is not life-threatening, but I take preventative medication and may need an operation in a decade or so if the dice roll against me.
Simply put, in the eyes of the insurance firm I am damaged goods, they would rather deal with people who have a longer expiry date or may never get sick.
Maybe the NHS will save my bacon…maybe not.
