Unemployment

[kandrathe]

Just giving it over entirely to the private sector will simply shift the burden from public to private - robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Wait. Isn't taxing Peter to pay for Paul's health insurance part of the problem. Paul has no remorse for using as much as he can, while Peter healthy or not must continue to pay an ever increasing portion of their combined health care costs. Peter needs to buy his own insurance, and also pay for those who cannot afford it. The pool of Peters is decreasing, and the pool of Pauls is increasing and they want increasing amounts and quality as well. Again, I would say, if this works for health care, why not food?

Now, since you're ideologically opposed to government, I'm sure this seems like a good thing in any case. But it's not a savings, just a different method of accounting. Money being spent on health care directly is not much different from money being taxed, and then spent on health care - except that it appears to be much less efficient. Health care is already a leading cause of bankruptcies and private debt. How much worse would it get if you revoked all government support? And how much more expensive would emergency care get?

I would say that credit cards are the largest cause of private debt (not counting mortgages). The problem with catastrophic illness is that you lose your employment. Not many people have very well thought out insurance for death, disability, dismemberment, etc. In the US, when you lose your employment you can keep your health insurance (COBRA -- for some limited number of months), however you pay 100% of the cost rather than just the 40% you paid as the employee. Then, also, they now have no income stream, so the additional unexpected expense drives people off of insurance. We definitely need to get employers out of the equation, and return the purchase of insurance to a consumer choice. But, we don't need a nanny state to sort this all out for people. People should be able to save (HSA), or purchase adequate affordable insurance for low probability events. The other item we need to sort out is what commitment the government has to keep people alive, or repair people who haven't adequately insured themselves. Once you set that standard, you have to be prepared to pay it for everyone (because eventually it becomes the rule, rather than the exception). I'd say we dump the FICA tax, and employer driven health insurance. Replace it with a combined retirement/HSA account that is set at a minimum of 10% of earnings which you can use for health maintenance as needed. Employers can opt to contribute to an employees HSA/retirement account. When you reach 65, all restrictions are lifted. Then, also as with IRA's or 401K accounts, there can be emergency provisions, and penalties for early withdrawals. The bottom line is that we get the money out of the Federal treasury so they cannot spend it.