Private Health Insurance, A Free Market Failure

Dear Dr. Herrick, I, myself, am not arguing that health care is a “public good” or “public utility.” Health care is a human necessity. When people are sick or want to keep themselves well this is the service we almost all rely on. Is there any doubt in your mind that this is so? If impoverishment and death is the outcome when it is not available because of inability to pay, this really begs the issue. This suggests it is not following market place rules. Businesses are suppose to enhance wealth both to its owners and its users. I would refer you to Kenneth Arrow’s treatise on why health insurance does not fit the usual competitive model of the market place. It can be easily googled.

You could set aside money your whole life and still be behind the 8 ball if you get sick. Instead of hoarding it in this manner why not pay for meaningful insurance according to your ability to pay through a central mechanism. This removes the worry and tension and fulfills an essential part of the social contract. Rich or not so rich benefit when the population is as healthy as it can be. Thomas Paine: “No one joined a society to be worse off.”

To some extent everyone agrees treatment can not be withheld from anyone. People cannot be refused care in an ER or hospital whether they can pay or not(sort of like your defense argument). However this approach is both an overly expensive and insufficient way to deliver care. It would be less expensive and more life saving to give this group of people health insurance.

Public Health is already an accepted necessity. In addition without individual care in the range of affordability and accessibility our survival is in danger. I have already alluded to the numbers of dead and the loss to the economy because of our present system. It just stands to reason if everyone has this need but its costs in the society are too great, then a government imposed tax and/or regulations to pay for it is the next logical step. Will there be problems or complaints? Undoubtedly, but we in the US do not even come close to the 86% satisfaction rate of Canadian Medicare, for example. Anecdotal horror stories aside, reports from other developed countries echo this result.

By fixing this major hole in our economy we will provide more capital and opportunities to private entrepreneurs. Wasn’t it health insurance premiums for employees active and retired that helped sink GM?

Simply put, a rational health care system is presently out reach financially for too many people. It is time for Medicare for all.