America’s dysfunctional health care financing system needs to be reformed. But the goal should not be universal coverage. Reform should simply aim to make health insurance more affordable and portable, says Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor at National Review.
We should make it easier for people to buy insurance that isn’t tied to their employment, says Ponnuru:
These two reforms would address most people’s anxieties about the health care system:
Critics of this free-market solution have argued that it would cause the current employer-based health insurance system to unravel. But that system is already unravelling, and if public health plans are created, they would unravel further as employers dumped their workers onto the public plans, explains Ponnuru.
Furthermore, people with pre-existing conditions would find it hard to get coverage. In the long run, the option to buy renewable policies that people could take from job to job would keep most people from needing to face this problem. Direct government subsidies could help the remainder, says Ponnuru.
Source: Ramesh Ponnuru, The Misguided Quest for Universal Coverage, New York Times, April 9, 2009.
Republished from Daily Policy Digest, National Centre for Policy Analysis, US.
For text: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/09/opinion/09ponnuru.html
For more on Health Issues: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16
Health Policy Unit Bulletin/ 14 April 2009
