Universal health insurance: the 50,000 foot view
Let’s step back and look in very broad terms at what we want to do, what we really need to do, and what we can use our government to do.
We collectively use our government to protects us against catastrophic risks, not all risks. Social Security is social insurance against a catastrophic loss of income in old age, not a complete guarantee of a pre-retirement lifestyle. Federal deposit insurance protects our deposits up to $100,000 only –- against total loss -- not necessarily the entire deposit. Federal or federally-backed disaster insurance, like federally-backed flood insurance with a property limit for homeowners of $250,000, does not necessarily make everyone whole, but helps minimize catastrophic loss.
The crying social need today is to eliminate the fear of financial devastation resulting from a health event. That fear is immediate and ever-present among the tens of millions of people who have no health insurance at all, and is a lurking fear for every American whose health insurance comes through a job that could be lost. Ancillary to that is the fear of employers that the health insurance costs they are subsidizing in part will continue to escalate without limit and unpredictably, and that, having to cover costs that companies in national health insurance companies do not have, they will continue to see their competitiveness in an international marketplace erode – with the result that employers are hesitant to add employees covered by benefits even when they may be needed.
These fears are not good for the country. They are a giant drag on the confidence that is the underpinning of a strong economy and a strong society. Yes, people don’t like co-pays and big deductibles, and would like to just go in the office, get treated, and walk out. But these things are annoying, not catastrophic. Fundamentally, as the Health Savings Accounts recognize, they are shuffling money around – paying an insurance company to do your unplanned but small-need saving for you.
The big, huge problem, the biggest fear and the one that’s easiest to solve because it’s a non-partisan fear, is the catastrophic loss. Social insurance does catastrophic really, really well. Let's do that first.
We collectively use our government to protects us against catastrophic risks, not all risks. Social Security is social insurance against a catastrophic loss of income in old age, not a complete guarantee of a pre-retirement lifestyle. Federal deposit insurance protects our deposits up to $100,000 only –- against total loss -- not necessarily the entire deposit. Federal or federally-backed disaster insurance, like federally-backed flood insurance with a property limit for homeowners of $250,000, does not necessarily make everyone whole, but helps minimize catastrophic loss.
The crying social need today is to eliminate the fear of financial devastation resulting from a health event. That fear is immediate and ever-present among the tens of millions of people who have no health insurance at all, and is a lurking fear for every American whose health insurance comes through a job that could be lost. Ancillary to that is the fear of employers that the health insurance costs they are subsidizing in part will continue to escalate without limit and unpredictably, and that, having to cover costs that companies in national health insurance companies do not have, they will continue to see their competitiveness in an international marketplace erode – with the result that employers are hesitant to add employees covered by benefits even when they may be needed.
These fears are not good for the country. They are a giant drag on the confidence that is the underpinning of a strong economy and a strong society. Yes, people don’t like co-pays and big deductibles, and would like to just go in the office, get treated, and walk out. But these things are annoying, not catastrophic. Fundamentally, as the Health Savings Accounts recognize, they are shuffling money around – paying an insurance company to do your unplanned but small-need saving for you.
The big, huge problem, the biggest fear and the one that’s easiest to solve because it’s a non-partisan fear, is the catastrophic loss. Social insurance does catastrophic really, really well. Let's do that first.
posted by KISSWeb | 5:48 PM
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