Revamping Health Insurance

Pending

Written on - Not yet published to a wikizine

From: asymptoticlife.com

Health insurance is a pet peeve of mine. The so-called "free market" allows insurance companies to decline me as an individual (thanks, GOP), while federal regulation prevents the creation of groups outside an employment relationship (thanks, Dems). In short, neither party has had my best interests at heart.

I've been skeptically optimistic as the Obama administration moves its health care agenda through Congress: optimistic because Obama has the momentum and political capital to get something done, skeptical because in general Obama has favored an employer-based health plan. Such an approach would do little for small businesses except either leave them uninsured or force them out of business. And the public cost of the ideas bandied about-- trillions more dollars we don't have-- is more than I believe our indebted economy can handle.

So it was with some interest that I read reports of a proposed Senate bill that offers some faiurly interesting solutions at a miuch lower price. It would:

Create a public health insurance system to compete with private insurance (either government-run or non-proifit cooperative).
Prevent health insurance companies from denying policies or increasing premiums based on pre-existing conditions.
Fine (tax) those who failed to buy health insurance.
Fine (tax) large employers who fail to offer health insurance.
Provide additional Medicaid for the poor.

It's an interesting mixture of market interventions. On the one hand, it forces insurance companies to treat all insureds equally regardless of prior history. Ordinarily this would be expected to raiswe rates across the board. However, forcing private insurance companies to com[pete with a nationwide non-profit option would help prevent that from happening. (Kaiser, where available, provides generally excellent care for far less money than the insurance companies. If Kaiser was available here, I'd dump Humana in a flash.)

This is clearly a move toward socialized medicine. Yet I no longer argue that medicine shouldn't be socialized-- if we as a society can afford to pay for it. One of my doctors charges $80 for a 10 minute appointment. That's almost $500 per hour. And that's obscene.

Markewt control should bring lower administrative costs. Much of doctors' overhead comes from billing insurance companies anbd collecting from the uninsured, and much of the health insurance companies' overhead comes from processing and denying claims. Those should both decline, reducing the overall cost of care (to us and our public and private insurers).

As the health care market becomes more controlled, there will be complaints. (Kaiser is "the one everyone loves to hate.") Still, I'm reminded of the view of health care expressed by some of my British friends-- they love to complain about how bad their socialized medicine is. But when they need care, they get on a plane and fly home.

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