We can compel military service (the draft), but we can't compel health insurance?

[jeff47]

13. Actually, most "peer" nations do not use private insurance companies

Last edited Tue Jun 26, 2012, 12:43 PM - Edit history (1)

The only western nation I know of that mandates private health insurance is Switzerland. All the rest (Canada, France, Germany, etc but not the UK) government provides insurance via taxation and there is only one "insurance company" for basic care - the government.

There are add-on insurance policies you can buy from private insurance, but those policies are not providing basic care. They provide niceties like private hospital rooms instead of semi-private.

Perhaps you're trying to differentiate a single payer system like Canada with a system like the UK where the government employs the doctors? The UK system technically isn't single payer. Because they aren't paying for care, they are providing care.

Even if we agree that a mandate is necessary, you still need to convince me that profits make our mandate superior to other mandates. Why does our law enshrine profits from these products when other nations consider profit from such products to be criminal?

It doesn't. The ACA limits the "medical loss ratio". Insurance companies have to spend 80% or 85% of premiums on medical care (depends on personal vs. employer-provided). The remaining 15% or 20% covers all overhead (CEO's salary, fancy building, TV ads, office supplies, etc) and profit. If the CEO gets a raise, profit has to go down. Or some other overhead has to be cut.

In Switzerland, private insurance can profit from basic coverage, but they are limited on their profits in a similar manner. Insurance companies there make most of their profit from selling add-on insurance.