Good Health Care Reform Article
One of the best I’ve seen so far in the current issue of Atlantic Monthly. (Yes, I now subscribe to Atlantic Monthly again — they made an offer I couldn’t refuse). It’s available free online in its entirety.
The essential points are:
1. There’s a difference between “health”, “health care”, and “health insurance”. One is your state of being that’s affected by many things — job, housing, family, goal attainment, etc.; one is the actual methods of keeping you healthy, mainly medically; and the other is one of many methods to pay for health care.
2. None of the reforms really address the core issue — reliance on employer (or government) provided insurance to pay for almost every medical procedure. Therefore, the patient is not the actual consumer, so normal market forces cannot apply in driving down costs while increasing value, quality, and access. Medical insurance should only be used for truly catastrophic ($50,000+ / year) events.
A simple analogy — when I got new windows in my house, I paid for it, not my homeowner’s insurance. And even if my homeowner’s insurance covered new windows, it would be due to a catastrophe — a tornado, for example. And, my employer would have 0 to do with it.
Also, I just got new brakes on my car. Again, I paid for it, not my auto insurance. And even if my auto insurance paid for it, it would be due to a catastrophe — an accident. And, again, my employer would have nothing to do with it.
I don’t agree with all the solutions proposed — having federal government involvement in providing the catastrophic insurance is ripe for tinkering and abuse and we’re just as likely to end up worse off than we are now. Also, mandating insurance is neither constitutional nor desired from a market-oriented approach. Even with those caveats on part of the proposed solution, this article is one of the best I’ve seen on this debate so far.