Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Defining the Health Insurance/Care Chasm, Pt.2

Previous…

The private market left to itself, of course, has great implications that the suppliers will, foremost, maximize their profits. In this, health insurance is treated like any other open industry, minimize liability. Health insurance risk pools are a liability, and so they must be minimized. To do this, it is necessary to categorize them in order to prioritize. Just like attorneys, they try not to bet on “losers”. They must be select in choosing their clients. This, of course, flies in the face of a community-minded ideology. Our nation right now is driven by opposite forces between health insurance based on individual freedoms or on community wellbeing. The only referee is the voting population who, supposedly, dictate where that balance is to be. The problem is that the overall agendas are rarely visible, only the mundane rhetoric is.

Whereas, the Community Wellbeing ideology has some great visions of national prosperity, some concessions must be attached. This can be confusing.  The Individual Freedom also purports some great visions but, also, requires some concessions. This seems to be even more confusing. The Democratic plan tends to be less disruptive by retaining our vital risk-sharing pool that is found with employer-provided health insurance, even bolstering it.  Less disruptive, because there is no widespread change from what we are already so familiar with.  The Republican agenda, conversely, is intended to change all that by taking away existing incentives from employers to provide further employee-based health insurance plans. The incentives now, will be awarded to individuals to give up their existing risk pools and hope they find favor with the powers that be and always have good health.

Continued…