Get everybody into a medical insurance plan, fast! But how?
Lots of “universal coverage” talk assumes that most uninsured folks are “too poor.” But look, most young people don’t buy insurance because they are healthy. And I know oldsters who have gone through life without medical insurance. When they’ve needed a shot, or a few stitches, they’ve visited the doctor and paid the bill.
Becky Akers, writing in The Christian Science Monitor, wants to know why everyone wants to force her to buy something she thinks makes no financial sense.
Ms. Akers admits that, though she is healthy and without insurance, she could get run over by a bus. But she bets she can cover most medical needs out of her savings and income.
Supporters of government managed medicine judge this irresponsible.
And yet, many of these critics are the same folks who insist that catastrophic medical insurance — the kind that is inexpensive because of huge deductibles — cover everybody, regardless of pre-existing conditions. But this turns insurance into a transfer program, workable only with high prices. Add full coverage rather than catastrophic, and medical insurance skyrockets beyond most people’s pay grade.
Yet if politicians would just stop tinkering with insurance, medical prices would come down for everyone, as Akers suggests … including, even the uninsurable, who would still require aid other than insurance.
If you are already sick, it’s too late to insure against sickness.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.