Health Insurance Does Not Equal Health Care, Opinion Piece Writes

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 28 Feb 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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The presidential candidates "assume that universal health insurance means universal health care" and that "once the law enables or requires everyone to buy health insurance, everyone will have adequate health care," Caroline Poplin -- a physician, attorney and visiting scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center -- writes in an Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece. However, she continues, "health insurance and health care are two different products for two different markets": health insurance "is for healthy people" and health care "is for the sick."

According to Poplin, what U.S. residents need "to lead full, productive lives is good health care," and health insurance "may be one way to get there." She uses the example of car insurance -- which "works well in this country" -- stating that despite the fact that "[m]ost drivers don't get into accidents," we "require all drivers to have insurance to cover the expenses of innocent victims." She adds that two key features of car insurance are limits on insurers' liability and the fact that insurance does not cover routine maintenance. Poplin states that health insurance "was never designed" to care for people who survive illnesses and live with chronic conditions.

According to Poplin, "There are some goods the private market just cannot provide efficiently that we need to purchase collectively: defense, roads, sanitation." She writes, "The rest of the developed world believes that health care is another." Poplin proposes "split[ting] the difference" to let "those who can obtain good insurance buy it" and to let "those who can't get decent insurance at a reasonable price buy into Medicare." She adds that "wherever the debate goes," U.S. residents must remember that the "real goal is not health insurance, but universal health care" (Poplin, Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/25).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.