I included this critique on your YouTube video, but here it is in it's entirety:
In general, I think this is a good video, but I think you missed an opportunity in your critique. First, I think that there is a serious problem with healthcare funding in this country: specifically that we rely way too much on insurance to pay for healthcare. That's a problem because, as you mention, insurance is a numbers game. And health insurance numbers don't work if insurance covers everything. What we forget is that the current system is a *RESULT* of stupid government rules.
Employer funded health insurance exists because of government price controls during WWII which prevented companies from increasing pay for scarce employees. Why were employees scarce? Because the government drafted them into the war. This was further exacerbated by government giving tax breaks to employer funded insurance but not privately purchased insurance. As if that weren't enough, government mandates what must be covered, and then limits interstate competition.
Had government not gotten involved in the *first* place, we wouldn't have the screwed up mess that you see. And I think you missed the opportunity to include that critique. Instead it seems like your championing the current system, and championing health insurance executives. IMHO, you missed a real opportunity.
As someone who sees a problem with healthcare funding, I think we need to focus on:
* catastrophic (not comprehensive) insurance * giving the same tax benefit to individual purchase of health insurance that we give to employer provided health insurance * removing the restrictions on purchasing insurance across state lines
I included this critique on your YouTube video, but here it is in it's entirety:
ReplyDeleteIn general, I think this is a good video, but I think you missed an opportunity in your critique. First, I think that there is a serious problem with healthcare funding in this country: specifically that we rely way too much on insurance to pay for healthcare. That's a problem because, as you mention, insurance is a numbers game. And health insurance numbers don't work if insurance covers everything. What we forget is that the current system is a *RESULT* of stupid government rules.
Employer funded health insurance exists because of government price controls during WWII which prevented companies from increasing pay for scarce employees. Why were employees scarce? Because the government drafted them into the war. This was further exacerbated by government giving tax breaks to employer funded insurance but not privately purchased insurance. As if that weren't enough, government mandates what must be covered, and then limits interstate competition.
Had government not gotten involved in the *first* place, we wouldn't have the screwed up mess that you see. And I think you missed the opportunity to include that critique. Instead it seems like your championing the current system, and championing health insurance executives. IMHO, you missed a real opportunity.
As someone who sees a problem with healthcare funding, I think we need to focus on:
* catastrophic (not comprehensive) insurance
* giving the same tax benefit to individual purchase of health insurance that we give to employer provided health insurance
* removing the restrictions on purchasing insurance across state lines
I'd be interested in what you think.