Unemployment

[Jester]

If we owned it, and it didn't disappear with our jobs, then it would be like groceries, the car payment, the mortgage, etc. Just another bill we need to pay.

Really? Because if you owned it, I suspect it would end up like retirement savings - something everyone things is a good idea, and most people do to some extent, but something which gets cut out or left out far more often than is rational, especially when times are tough. People are not good at predicting the future, even in a probabilistic sense. Everyone is too optimistic about their health care situation, until they get sick - at which point it's too late to change your mind.

People don't treat it as just one more bill. If you stop buying food, you starve. If you stop paying your rent, you live on the street. If you stop buying health insurance... well, nothing happens. Not immediately. So people risk it - even when that risk is irrational. Indvidually, 95% of people are fine. But 5% get caught out with some crisis or another, and the total social cost is higher than if they'd all just had universal health care.

With my scheme... You'd have a very small premium for those rare catastrophes, and a sizable HSA you can draw from to pay for your health care.

Sure, if you're lucky enough to get sick later, rather than earlier. What happens if you're 22, trying to make ends meet, you take a risky job in construction, and lose a limb? You don't have a "sizeable" lifetime of savings - maybe you had a few bucks you set aside. Maybe you have some insurance, but it doesn't cover everything. Or maybe you're not able to afford to insure yourself, to save extra for emergencies, and get every other bill paid on time.

I had a relative who used to work in Workers' Compensation. Even in Canada, where the medical bills are not an issue, the loss of income alone is crippling for many people. Getting sick sucks. How bad could it get with medical bills on top of things? Pretty ugly.

People think these things won't happen to them. Individually, they're probably right. Collectively, they can't all be right.

So, when people go broke what should the government do?

It's typically referred to as "welfare."

-Jester