Why health insurance costs are so high

[rtlemurs]

Here is an amusing story that could help explain at least part of the astronomical rise in health care costs over the last decade or so.

Comments

[pwcorgigirl]

I don't know about any law requiring a stock of replacement parts to be maintained, but the idea of unit replacement has been around a while. You can't buy just a little widget to fix something on your car -- it has to be a whole "unit," which runs into money.

The whole disposable culture thing makes me nuts. Some years ago I found the perfect drink bottles to put in Kiddo's lunchbox. They never leaked, were easy to open, easy to clean, but the cap was part of a one-unit molded piece that attached it to the bottle. It fit on by just popping it over the top. After about a year of use, the strap that connected the cap to the bottle tended to break. I wrote to Rubbermaid and asked for replacement caps. The reply was that the product was disposable and I should throw away a perfectly good bottle!

This is going to sound a bit nuts, but have you looked on eBay for replacement covers? People will sell the strangest things, and you could always sanitize them if you found them there.

[rtlemurs]

Back in the late 70's early 80's when I did work on my own car the gentleman at the NAPA store we (my father and I) always went to told me that auto manufacturers were required by law to keep parts available for discontinued models for a certain number of years (IIRC 3). I only remember it because the discussion hinged around patents and the legality of other companies making parts that should be protected under patent laws for the automakers