Session 5: Universal Healthcare or Low Cost Private Health Insurance? How to ensure equity in healthcare without burdening the Government?
Insurance is essential to protect against various types of financial risks. Some of these risks are healthcare crises, damages to objects such as cars and homes, and sometimes even life. Given the recent long wait times to get an appointment at hospitals run by the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom, as well as expected increases in the premium for government provided health insurance (Medicaid) in the United States of America, there has recently been support for less costly private health insurance plans. This is primarily done to bypass the disadvantages and challenges of public healthcare.
As a result of this context, SAYDF organized a discussion on health insurance. The discussion was centered around the idea that publicly provided healthcare insurance is not enough. In this discussion some participants highlighted that the ideal healthcare insurance system is one which is a mix of universal healthcare that is provided by the government as well as cheap private healthcare. This is closely resembled by the healthcare system in the United Kingdom, but with increased accessibility of low cost private hospitals through cheaper health insurance offered by private firms. They believed that such a system had various benefits such as little to no insurance paperwork for patients in addition to ensuring increased equity across different income groups in terms of access to healthcare. Furthermore, low cost private health insurance helps mitigate the issue of long wait times at public hospitals. At the same time, other participants argued that low cost private health insurance is an idealistic situation. This is primarily due to information asymmetry and adverse selection. Adverse selection is the idea that at a higher insurance premium only those who are more likely to incur higher healthcare costs will opt into the program. They believed that this would cause the insurance company to raise the premium, leading to their being more adverse selection, and eventually a death spiral. Other than this they agreed that universal healthcare is the best. A small group of participants also argued that another beneficial way to offer health insurance is to mandate citizens to purchase health insurance privately from non profit insurance firms. This would reduce the burden on the government, while also not offering an incentive for the insurance firms to raise prices drastically.
Towards the end the discussion turned away from health insurance towards nursing homes. This is because recently there has been discussion in the news regarding the decreasing quality of nursing homes. Students discussed ways in which quality of nursing homes could be improved. They stated that currently close to 70% of nursing homes are run privately, and shift towards more government run nursing homes for the elderly may help improve quality. This is as it would bring about increased regulation in nursing homes, helping ensure that standards are high and the elderly enjoy enjoy their life there.
This discussion showed how an industry like insurance which is thought of as simple and uncontroversial also has 2 sides to it.
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