Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Requiring health insurance

One of the ideas that is being batted around as we talk about universal coverage for health insurance is requiring people to have insurance. Some feel this is unreasonable, that people who are healthy (or who think they are healthy) shouldn't have to pay to be insured. I disagree.

First, we require people to carry insurance on their cars because no one plans to get into an accident. Even the best driver can get rear ended, even the healthiest person can have a gene for cancer or get in an accident or be exposed to a virus. If you decide not to carry health insurance, but then need it, you are cheating the rest of the covered people who pay, even when they are well.

I read someone say that insurance companies should be allowed to not cover pre-existing conditions because getting sick and then getting coverage is cheating the other people in the plan. That's why I think we need to get these people covered in the first place, so that no condition is pre-existing.

That said, I think that having extremely high deductible plans for some people makes sense. They shouldn't be for everyone, but a high deductible plan with a HSA makes sense for healthy people without kids, who don't expect any problems. They're still paying in to the pot, but they shouldn't have to get the deluxe plan.

One thing I've read in this debate that makes sense: The well pay for the sick, and we will all die one day. I think sometimes we forget this and behave as though we need to get something out of health care, or we need our wants taken care of. In reality, we'll all need it someday, and a bit of compassion is a good thing.