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Originally posted by Not Me
I think the worst thing about our health care system is that we get our health insurance through our employers. If we could change that one thing, it would be a tremendous help towards making the system better.
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Doubtless that market is distorted by the tax benefits to employers of providing health insurance. But not for those incentives, employers would be relatively different. Except that consumers have more power in the marketplace when they pool, as through an employer. If everyone was left to purchase health care individually, you'd see a lot more cream-skimming, to the detriment of many of us.
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The other thing that would help is to mandate that you buy it, just like you have to pay taxes or register for the draft if you are male. Vouchers to buy health insurance for the working poor could be issued. Means testing for medicare is a good idea, too. Those with higher incomes could still be on Medicare, they would just have to pay a premium each month that was some amount based on income.
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Instead of mandating that people purchase it, and struggling with the resulting enforcement/gap-filling problems, why not provide basic coverage through the government (directly or indirectly) and "make" people pay for it by taxing them?
