I have been self-employed for 14 years and have bought health insurance for my family of four for all of those years.

My kids and wife went to the doctor when they needed to, my sons had braces, courtesy of a payment plan made available by the doctor, and, being active boys, both made their trips to the emergency room.

When I first shopped for insurance I learned that I could save almost $300 per month by buying catastrophic coverage. That's $3,600 per year, more than enough to pay for physicals, doctors visits and the occasional trip to the emergency room.

One of the biggest problems in health-care is that people have forgotten what health insurance is for.

It was intended to protect your assets in the unlikely event of a catastrophic illness, not to pay for doctors' visits and physicals that you know are coming and can plan to pay for.

If you expect your insurance company to pay for physicals, that will be reflected in your premium. If you expect the government to pay for physicals, that will be reflected in your taxes.

The fix is not a government-run program.

The fix is to re-educate people about what health insurance is for, allow insurance companies to sell policies a la carte so people can buy the coverage they want, allow people to buy insurance across state lines and finally, serious, far-reaching medical malpractice tort reform.

Carl Cooke

Belgrade