I am an old curmudgeon, getting older by the minute. Back in what we used to call junior high school (now called middle school, I think) we learned about insurance, and were told that there were several characteristics that made something an insurable event. First, the event had to be potentially disastrous to the individual, i.e., you insure a ship against sinking, not a cheap ballpoint pen against loss. Second, there need to be many people who need to carry out the act, in order to spread the cost over many policy holders. Third, the event must be rare, so not every policy pays out. And fourth, the claims are episodic so the policy pays its obligation and then the event ends and everyone goes on with their lives.
These characteristics apply well to hazard insurance on my home, for example. My house burning down would be catastrophic to me, many people have homes that need to be insured, fractionally only very few houses burn down each year, and if my house did burn down the insurance company would, presumably, pay me the agreed upon amount and then the event would be over.
All of these characteristics do not apply to health care. Yes, it is potentially extremely expensive if I have an accident or some diseases, and yes there are many people who potentially need care, but everyone needs care at some point in their lives (not just in their 20s and 30s) and many health problems are chronic, requiring ongoing costs for the rest of the policy holder’s life.
There is, in today’s world, absolutely no reason that we should be using an insurance model to pay for health care in America. Just as we provide fire and police protection to everyone (at least ideally) we should provide health care to everyone. I would much rather pay a (much smaller) tax that guarantees health care for my family and me (and everyone else in society) than to continue paying a (much higher) premium to a profit-making corporation that imposes many limitations on which doctor I can see and what medicines and procedures I can have.
Jack Mottley is a resident of Rochester.