Delete comment from: Captain Capitalism
Thanks Derek -
There are countless health-insurance providers that make a king's ransom insuring for catastrophic losses (and even relatively routine injuries/illnesses). Such is the beauty of aggregates & averages, and the law of large numbers. The insurance company cannot be certain which person will suffer a catastrophic illness/injury, but it can be reasonably certain that someone will.
That being said, health insurance is not a public good, according to the typical definition, which would require non-excludability. My health insurance policy does not cover you, ergo, you are excluded, hence, it is not a public good.
And so what about the people who willingly choose not to insure themselves? These people would be the very definition of "free-riders," i.e., those who don't want to pay for the benefit, but want to receive the benefit nonetheless.
Mar 21, 2006, 9:39:00 PM
Posted to Health Care Expenditures as % of GDP