Health insurance idea

[Sticky Pads]

A lot of people (myself included!) are not happy with the way hospital bills are currently implemented. I can easily lose $20k in a half-hour just having fun in Free Mode doing stuff like trying to climb mountains, playing in traffic, etc. Since I am fairly low-level (13), it can take me hours to make that money back. The effect of this, obviously, is to discourage playing around in Free Mode. It gets much worse when you have someone griefing you with spawn killing, and they can completely wipeout your bank account in a very short time.

Instead of just eliminating hospital bills, how about health insurance? There could be a couple of new health insurance companies with differing plans: one plan could be a flat-rate premium you pay every 10 in-game days or so. Say, $15k or whatever. If you have this plan, it only costs you $250 to go to the hospital. The other plan could have a variable premium that varies according to how often you die. And there could be an "out-of-pocket maximum" where you don't pay anything at all if your out-of-pocket expense exceeds a certain amount in the 10-day period.

For further interest, premiums could vary depending on the number of players enrolled in either plan (size of the insurance pool), and the two companies could be traded on BAWSAQ.

I'm not an economist and I don't know much about health insurance plans, so these ideas aren't totally thought through, but I think the introduction of real economics in GTAO is a genius-level move. I'd think it would be possible to come up with two (or more) health insurance plans that could appeal to two (or more) different styles of player, that would help with the hospital bills in an interesting way that could also be a commentary on the current US health system, and also educate people somewhat on how health insurance works.

Thoughts?

Edited October 14, 2013 by Sticky Pads

[Shpongled]

Would be cool. It would also add some more dimension to a few companies on the stock market.

[CurseSTx]

OMG ! THATS GENIUS ! I 100000000000000000% AGREE

[Smorty]

As long as it is not ObamaCare then it probably would work. I wouldn't even buy it though unless I wanted to go killing random people all the time and expected them to fight back.

[KubilayLP]

You're totally right. I'm also just level 13 and I lost 2,000 $ because I was attacked by some assholes in Free Mode. So, they should reduce the hospital bills. Otherwise I'm not going to battle with others in Free Mode.hospital billshospital bills

[Smorty]

To be honest I think if anything they won't do that and increase the fees to balance out the money market right now with all the money glitching. Scaled higher towards higher ranked players etc.

[cliftonshumpert]

I only have 1000 dollars in my bank account and have to spend it all on weapons, so im not really able to afford redwoods, ecola, or pisswasser. Do you think I'd qualify for free health insurance and maybe a free amount of snacks at the gas station? lol

[Sticky Pads]

I was sort of thinking that eliminating hospital bills altogether would be a bit like universal health care. There could be a progressive tax that everyone would have to pay every few in-game days, based on money in the bank. Lol. I'm loving the economics in GTAO, even though they are pretty rough at the moment.