“You Keep Using That Word. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means.”
Because I’m a masochist, I have actually read through some of the comments to this op-ed on mandating autism insurance by the Show-Me Institute’s own Caitlin Hartsell. Unsurprisingly, they are mostly unfavorable. Most of the comments don’t attack Hartsell’s reasoning or even her conclusions, but seem to assume that because there is a problem (children with autism need treatment) that government action (a mandate forcing health insurance to cover autism treatments) will solve the problem and not cause any negative unintended consequences. These are just further examples of the government-as-magic school of thought. That’s certainly distressing, but I see it so often that I’ve come to take it for granted.
What I do find shocking in the comments is that some people don’t seem to be even remotely familiar with how insurance is supposed to work. The best example comes from commenter bogie90:
And do you buy autism insurance before your child is born just in case they have autism? Who would do that? And the insurance companies aren’t going to cover after the fact, remember pre-existing conditions?
Yes, of course you buy it before the child is born in case they have autism. That’s what insurance is for: to protect you against tragic but unlikely outcomes. You buy fire insurance for your house just in case you have a fire. However, you can’t insure your house against fire once it has the pre-existing condition of being on fire. At that point, insurance is just dollar trading to repair the damage from the fire. This might be one of the big problems with the debate over health care: people do not actually know what health insurance is.
You don’t buy insurance just for tragic and unlikely outcomes. People buy insurance for mundane and likely things all the time, like athletes getting injured, or Iphones being broken.
Comment by Eapen Thampy — June 11, 2010 @ 9:16 p.m.
Well, at the very least insurance is for the unpredictable and unfortunate. If everyone knew for sure that it would or wouldn’t happen, insurance would be pointless.
Comment by John Payne — June 11, 2010 @ 9:31 p.m.
Insurance is not only used to hedge bets but also to spread the cost of unfortunate ailments.
You and most conservative/libertarians take the idealistic approach that everyone will insure against every eventuality before bad things occur. And you also presume that people will be able to obtain said odd form of insurance and that the insurer will stay in business and never be merged or purchased by another company.
These assumptions are absurd. We don’t live in the 50s. Companys merge, diverge, go bankrupt and all sorts of nifty machinations that help them kick out non-profitable members all the time. We have to insure the unfortunates because capitalism has accelerated to the level where the second a person in a family becomes seriously ill the entire family will go bankrupt.
Comment by KC Lowlife — June 11, 2010 @ 10:32 p.m.
I mean, when I bought insurance for my Iphone, I knew that I’d very likely end up with a broken Iphone at some point because it’s a delicate machine. The fact that I’d need it was very predictable, I just didn’t know when. and the people who sold me Iphone insurance knew this too. they’re just able to structure their rates so that they make a profit margin of some kind.
Comment by Eapen Thampy — June 11, 2010 @ 10:34 p.m.
Regarding autism, is it worth it for the gov to try and help the autistic people as children so that they may have to help them less as adults? Some autistic people are/become highly functional, some become totally dependent on the government for their pretty long life. Is an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure for autism? I truly don’t know.
Comment by Papillon — June 14, 2010 @ 9:30 a.m.
I agree that it’s unlikely that you will ever find an insurance plan that allows you to select exactly the diseases you want covered and only those, but there are numerous options for insurance plans nonetheless. These range from very bare bones, high deductible plans like the one I have to so-called Cadillac plans that cover almost everything imaginable. Would it be nice if everyone had the best coverage and treatment imaginable? Certainly, but we live in a world of scarcity, and the best way to allocate scarce resources is by allowing people to make choices based on their own needs and wants–not mandating that everyone buy specific goods or services.
Comment by John Payne — June 14, 2010 @ 1:42 p.m.