The associated press is reporting that, yesterday June 11th, 2008, former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich wants a health insurance mandate for those earning over $75,000 per year. He called it “immoral” that people who can afford medical insurance choose not to buy it and then expect free medical care at emergency rooms.
However, he does not want the mandatory health insurance to come from government, so presumably he expects people to buy it from private insurers. Thus, the system he envisions would probably resemble something along the lines of the fact that all drivers are required to have valid auto insurance.
So does his idea make sense? Well lets look at some figures provided by The National Coalition on Health Care. Currently, almost 47 million Americans lack health insurance or roughly 16% of the total US population. Of people lacking health insurance, 40% (almost 19 million people) have a household income over $50,000 a year.
Unfortunately, I was not able to find any information on how many American earning over $75,000 lack proper health insurance, but given the numbers above it could well run into the millions. If true, this would certainly lend credibility to Newt’s argument that these people cost the system money.
However, what we don’t know is why people who earn over $75,000 choose not to get coverage. Is it an issue of affordability or personal choice? I am sure for some people it is an issue of affordability, especially if they are self-employed (hence have to pay the full health insurance costs) and have a preexisting or chronic health issue.
However, some people choose not to get coverage because they would rather spend their money elsewhere. Therefore, it seems bizarre that Gingrich, who has tended to support free market initiatives, would interfere with people’s individual spending choices. Unlike, auto insurance (you can choose whether or not to buy and drive a car) there would seem to be no way to opt out of his health insurance mandate.
This makes his scheme seem rather similar to a universal health care scheme, the only difference being is who pays what, the individual or the government. Then again maybe having universal health care wouldn’t be so bad after all. At the very least, it would reduce the conflict between providing good medical service and trying to increase profits.
What do you think? Leave your comments below.
3 Comments
Lets face it, 75000 is not what it used to be. With the shrinkign value of the dollar, its worth about 40,000 year 1999 dollars. maybe less. This is not a huge amount of money.
I am not sure I agree with you, I feel that people should be forced to buy the insurance. 75,000 is still a substantial amount of money.
Gingrich, who also founded the Center for Health Transformation, engaged the audience with his compelling analysis of the powerful trends that will reshape the American health system in the coming years, and the critical role health and disability nonprofits will play in this new system, as well as the huge impact individuals with disabilities and organizations will have as they begin to make their own healthcare decisions.