Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

WASHINGTON _ In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama said, "If anyone from either party has a better approach" to reforming health care, "let me know."

We volunteer! The challenge in health-care policy is to balance compassion with personal responsibility. Americans should have access to necessary care while also paying their fair share.

Compelling individuals to purchase health insurance, as President Obama currently wishes, is one approach. But it's the wrong one. And almost certainly unconstitutional.

What is called health insurance today is not really insurance at all. True insurance pays claims rarely, only in extreme catastrophic instances, and it has low premiums. What is called health insurance is instead more like a pre-paid service plan, with frequent small claims and high premiums.

American health insurance was originally created by health-care providers for their benefit. It encourages individuals to consume health-care services and it ensures payment for those services. Health-care providers lobby their state regulators to require that their services be covered by insurance.

As a result, health insurance gets more expensive every year.

From the standpoint of protecting consumers from financial risk posed by unanticipated, large health-care expenditures, however, the coverage of today's insurance is inadequate. Just ask anyone who ever contracted a serious illness and subsequently lost a job.

By and large, Americans reject today's health insurance when they have to pay for it themselves. Of the people who are not on government or employer-provided health plans, the majority choose to be uninsured. Forcing consumers to buy this product may benefit insurance companies, health-care providers and other special interests, but it is not good public policy.

Instead, a better idea would be to move toward a health-care safety net. This should have two components: universal progressive catastrophic insurance; and health-care savings accounts.