“Unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek… just can’t be achieved. That’s why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.” President Obama 9/9/2009
A noble cause to be sure- but under penalty of law? Mr. President, I have stood in traffic court and watched people go to jail for not having auto insurance. Could the same fate await people without health insurance?
Before we even consider such a thing, let’s take a closer look because there are many reasons why heath insurance is not auto insurance.
Part 1: Capitalism.
It’s a free country, “I have the right to swing my fist all I want, until I hit your nose.” Basically, we have a wide berth of freedom in our actions until we directly harm someone else.
When we license people and put them at the control of a deadly weapon, two groups of people are at risk: the driver and the other people on the road.
If the driver of one vehicle hits another car or pedestrian, physical harm is inflicted upon that victim and their property. It is equitable then to require the person at fault to pay for the damages. And given the likely high cost of such damages, requiring auto insurance (as President Obama would say) “just makes sense.”
Is it the same with health insurance? President Obama would say Yes, because “it forces the rest of us to pick up the tab when [they] get sick.”
Where is the problem? It’s supply and demand, basic capitalism.
If demand goes up and supply stays the same, then costs go up.
It’s the same reason why gas price fluctuate, the price of milk goes up, and college tuition increases. None of us ‘like’ to pay more, but is it morally wrong? Only when the government gets involved.
Too many medical professionals and medical students are leaving the industry because of the over-regulation which makes it difficult for them to make a profit sufficient to pay off their student loans and medical mal-practice insurance. That changes the formula. Now,
If demand goes up and supply goes down, then costs go way, WAY up.
And in that case, it would not be the fault of the medical professionals or the insurance industry, or even of the uninsured. It would be the fault of the government.
Mr. President, are you willing to throw people in jail because you over-regulated the market? How does that help anyone?
_________________________________
(coming soon)
September 28, 2009 at 4:05 PM |
The problem with insurance is that the cost of insurance also drives up the cost to those insured. They in turn pass that cost on to those they service (and on and on). I’m not saying we shouldn’t pay for the damages whatever they are. Quite the contrary. Instead of requiring insurance by law (which may or may not pay out), why not require property liquidation instead. If someone can’t pay for the car wreck he caused, then he should sell his car and his boat and whatever else, including his house, if he can’t come to an equitable solution with the victim – say monthly payments or some such. Same with medical insurance. If the cost of malpractice insurance wasn’t so high, the cost of seeing a doctor wouldn’t be so high. And why should a doctor be required to have malpractice insurance in the first place – my god – if he is that bad as a physician, he should pay for damages too and out of his own pocket, not through some ambiguous insurance company. If he’s bad enough to go broke, he shouldn’t be practicing.
September 29, 2009 at 10:10 PM |
Anna, before you make your argument regarding high insurance costs for both the patients and the doctors causing health care prices to increase, you have to consider why the insurance costs are so high to begin with. Government restrictions on insurance companies make it so that they are VERY limited on what they sell, to whom, and where they sell it. The government tells them what states they can sell it in and regulates the different payment plans, premiums, and coverages that they can offer. When you add government bureaucracy into business, prices ALWAYS go up. Additionally, on the supply side of this problem, doctors need malpractice insurance not because they are all bad physicians, but because our country has become addicted to suing for frivolous matters in order to effortlessly acquire access to the all mighty dollar. So the real problem here is an over-regulated market and lack of tort reform.
If you free up the insurance industry from the constraints of government regulation and provide a safe environment for physicians to operate in health care costs would go down overnight. OH…and stop providing free care to illegal immigrants…
I did like you ideas on property liquidation though!
@Jacque: Awesome post as per usual. My favorite line was “I have the right to swing my fist all I want, until I hit your nose.” I’m going to have to use that one