Watch TV infomercials... not fraud but people buy stupid stuff all day long.
True, and mostly stuff that doesn't need to be regulated away (except the existing laws and regulations against fraud, without which the situation would be worse)
health insurance costs in this country can equal or exceed what folks pay for housing or put into 401K's in their lifetime.
Certainly I've been putting a lot less in to it, but then I'm only middle aged (some would even consider that period to start later than my age, but I'm over half the average life expectancy), not old. I might over my life easily put over a half million (in today's dollars, more with inflation) in to such things, but then with expensive care when I get old, I might eventually face a similar level of expense, esp. if you consider expenses I don't directly pay (payouts that exceed my total insurance payments, or payouts that come out of tax money, and may exceed my life time Medicare tax payments).
So you are correct that health care and health insurance are potentially one of the largest lifetime costs people face.
But I don't see how we get from that fact to ideas like "there is a need for a very large government role", or "regulatory competition would be a bad idea".
In many ways less regulation DOES help. It allows people to pick insurance that fits their needs, rather than some politician's or political interest groups picture of their needs (assuming the politician or interest group is actually even trying to meet most people's needs, rather than just advancing their agenda regardless). |
