On 28 Oct 2008 at 16:05, Jim Sharkey wrote: > Dave Land wrote: > > >On Oct 28, 2008, at 11:11 AM, John Williams wrote: > > >> Do you think other people should pay for your daughter's health > >> care while you should only contribute a small amount, even though > >> you could contribute much more? > > >This is *precisely* how private insurance works: everyone pays > >a "little bit" so that anyone who has enormous expenses can be > >taken care of. > > Exactly. The larger the pool of participants in a health plan, the smaller > the cost to each participant in that pool. Assuming your actuaries are > competent, anyway. :-)
Except that's not how it works, you simply end up excluding anyone very likely to need treatment or with pre-existing conditions. That's called Adverse Selection. The approach in the Netherlands using a pool to offset Adverse Selection (combined with the fact the basic package has to be offered) works a lot better. AndrewC _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
