For many years now, health care has relied heavily on private insurance. Most people get health care through their job or their spouse’s job as a benefit-in lieu of payment. As health care costs rose, so did health insurance costs. The result of this is that more and more companies dropped the benefit or at least no longer offered it to new employees. This has created a growing group of people who are uninsured (because they cannot afford to pay for it on their own) and do not qualify for public assistance. This becomes a social problem when the uninsured get medical services and do not pay for it because then tax payers end up paying for it. The government came up with a solution: require everybody to have health insurance.
Private insurance companies exist to make a profit. http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/09/zirkelbach-profits/ That means that they only profit if most of their customers pay more than they get out of it…a lot more. Health insurance only works because it is a bad deal for most people who buy it. http://www.aapsonline.org/newsoftheday/001247 When you buy car insurance, you aren’t covered for basic maintenance such as oil changes, or replacing brake pads. You are covered if you are in an accident. This is essentially what high deductible health insurance is for. You pay for the check-ups and colds but if you break your leg or have a heart attack then the insurance pays for it. It is cheaper for those who are young and healthy to pay for medical treatments as they need them.
But why health insurance? Yes, it is great to have-it covers everything! However, it is expensive and few people can afford it on their own. There are alternatives to health insurance. The benefit of medical savings plans are grossly underestimated, especially for those who go to a doctor a few times a year or less. You choose how much to spend and your employer puts your untaxed money into that account for you. Why doesn’t every employer do this? Another alternative to insurance is medical reimbursement. You go to the doctor and front the total bill. You then submit your receipt to your employer and they send you a check for half of the cost of the bill. This is far cheaper than insurance and requires far less red tape. If we were to be more creative about paying for medical care, we would find much cheaper ways of providing care.
Medical care is a very personal thing and it makes sense that paying for it should be personalized. There is no one good solution for everybody. Requiring everybody to purchase health insurance is not a solution to the problem. It works for some but not for all. For some, expanding government assistance is the solution, for others, high deductible health care and sliding scales. To say that everybody needs to buy health insurance is to ignore most of the problem.
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