Innovation Best Alternative to Obamacare | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary

Innovation Best Alternative to Obamacare | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Economist Glen Whitman and physician Raymond Raad found that, when it comes to basic medical sciences, diagnostics (e.g., MRIs and CT scanners), and therapeutics (e.g., ACE inhibitors and statins), the United States often produces more medical innovations than all other nations combined.

America's health insurance markets are not following suit, despite the ready availability of innovations that can improve the delivery of care, insure the 'young invincibles,' and provide secure coverage for the sick. Bringing those innovations to consumers requires tearing down regulatory barriers to competition"

"Yet these innovations lie beyond the reach of most consumers, Stanford health economist Alain Enthoven explains, because our employment-based health insurance system – a creature of the federal tax code – blocks entry by integrated, prepaid health plans."

"While the Obama plan would force young invincibles to purchase health insurance, markets have developed insurance policies that can achieve the same result without coercion. Such policies pay a deferred dividend to customers who end up not filing any claims. The same miscalculation that causes young invincibles to underestimate their need for insurance also causes them to overestimate the probability that they will receive a dividend. Therefore, they insure."

"these innovations are currently available in China, and were quite popular in life-insurance markets in the United States until they were demonized as a form of gambling."