Insurance

I‘m afraid we need to get back to basics. One would think that people understood insurance.

There are many valid complaints concerning “healthcare reform.” Those focused on insurance are not among them.

That doesn’t stop them from complaining. Some complain for political reasons. Others complain because they don’t understand what insurance is, how it works and what it is supposed to do.

Many of the young are complaining loudly that they should not be compelled (mandated) to purchase healthcare insurance. They say they are healthy. They say they shouldn’t be forced to pay for healthcare they do not need and will not use.

Insurance is supposed to be a way of sharing risks. If only the decrepit buy it, everyone in the pool will share the high costs. What is the advantage of that? Insurance needs to cover those who won’t be making claims in order to make the costs affordable.

Politicians have played to the unwashed for decades, saying that Social Security should be voluntary. Okay. So, who would opt out? The bulk of those opting out would be the very ones who would most need assistance during their “golden years.” We aren’t going to let them starve at the curb in front of our house.

Instead, we would pay for them through one of the welfare programs. We would do that rather than have them contribute to the costs during their productive years. Those who would opt out would save themselves money and force everyone else to pay their share.

What holds true for Social Security also obtains with health insurance. First, there is no guarantee that the young will not get sick. Second, when they do grow up they will appreciate having someone share the burden, particularly at a time when most have a fixed and/or limited income.

In that first case, those who have bought in, the ones who already have high healthcare costs, would be forking over for those kids unlucky enough to become ill. There is more than a remote possibility that those who are now young will get old. There is also more than a remote possibility that they will then see the merit of sharing their costs with people who only need the insurance, not the actual care.

Now, let’s look at this from another perspective. The bills that the Congress has before it are not simply means of providing healthcare to more people. Those bills require people not to pay for their heathcare. They require people to give money to private insurance companies. This isn’t quite the same as requiring people to pay into the publicly-run Social Security.

Requiring people to make purchases from private, for profit corporations is more than a slippery slope. It is an enormous, bottomless pit. What philosophical justification could there possibly be? There would be just as much justification for the government to require us to all purchase rings from a small number of jewelers. The jewelers would be largely free to decide how many carats those diamonds must be. They could also set the prices they want.

Perhaps Walmart could scrape together enough bribe money to get Congress to pass a law for its benefit.