The Cold Equations

You might find Uwe Reinhardt’s piece at Vox.com on the iron grip of actuarial mathematics on the fate of healthcare insurance interesting:

The unfolding drama may seem to be driven largely by ideology and partisanship. In the end, however, there is no getting around the actuarial mathematics on which health insurance everywhere in the world rests — public as well as private.

Unless, that is, our government is content to leave millions of Americans without the benefits of health insurance, and the access to essential health care it provides.

The presence of millions of citizens lacking health insurance remains a uniquely American problem.

I’ve mentioned it before but it bears repeating. Trying to fit U. S. policy into a Procrustean bed of policies designed for the ethnic states of Europe will inevitably fail. We are better understood as a European-type developed country that is simultaneously a developing Third World country like Mexico or Brazil.

Heck, don’t be surprised if policies designed for the Sweden, Germany, or France of 40 years ago start collapsing too. It’s a new world.

4 comments… add one
  • Gray Shambler Link

    “Procrustean” Wow! had to look it up.

    Let me add this to your post. I’m a layman with 40 years experience regarding Indian Health Services, A socialist health service.

    Everyone is nice, helpful, and I believe, professional. Everyone should ask, how is health care apportioned on Indian reservations?

    I M O The health care is excellent if you, the patient, or caregiver, is intelligent, proactive, and compliant.

    Lots and lots of Native Americans die at home or in the E R because they were not proactive about healthcare, benefiting those who are.

    I guess not that different than, the squeeky wheel gets the grease, excepting that complaining alone is not enough, informed complaining works.

  • walt moffett Link

    We’ll all be better off thinking and talking about the amount of federal money and where it will come from. However, everyone tap dances around the point.

  • bob sykes Link

    My daughter has lived in Germany for some 15 years as a resident alien. She gets excellent health care, but she pays 30% of her gross income into Germany’s health and retirement systems. And those systems are nearing bankrupcy. Germany also has an income tax and VAT.

  • What will happen in Germany after the admittance of millions of “guests” from Syria, Afghanistan, and North Africa is anybody’s guess. They don’t seem to have gone there to work but were venue-shopping for benefit packages. You be the judge.

    The German healthcare system, now about 130 years old, was not designed for 15% (or more) non-working adult residents.

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