Health Insurance in the Ownership Society

April 25, 2005

In his Friday column, Paul Krugman makes a very effective and concise version of the case for national health insurance: Passing the Buck:

So we've created a vast and hugely expensive insurance bureaucracy that accomplishes nothing. The resources spent by private insurers don't reduce overall costs; they simply shift those costs to other people and institutions. It's perverse but true that this system, which insures only 85 percent of the population, costs much more than we would pay for a system that covered everyone.

By not tying health insurance to employment, we open the economy to more opportunities for entrepreneurship. The main incentive in going to work for The Man, rather than for one's self is to get benefits like health insurance (and a regular salary.) By making health insurance a condition of citizenship, rather than employment, we encourage individual initiative and make it possible for people to start their own businesses. Isn't that the central part of an ownership society?