November 24
Health Insurance History in the Making
A large aspect of Obama’s proposed health insurance reform was that the millions of uninsured Americans would become covered by some sort of insurance, be it through an employer, an individual policy, or a government subsidized plan. Part of making that work would mean that insurance companies could no longer decline people based on prexisting conditions, but would have to extend coverage to everyone. On one hand, this means that companies would now have the financial risk of carrying potentially costly policies, but they would have a much larger pool of insureds to help balance that out. In Boston, companies for the first time proposed a plan that would offer coverage to everyone, regardless of their medical history. But the only way for this to really work is if health insurance is made mandatory, and people are required to buy it whether they want it or not. Is this plausible? Car insurance is mandatory, can health insurance be made the same way?