Comment by seanmcdirmid
21 days ago
I thought the ACA was based on the Swiss system of mandatory insurance? The heritage foundation copied the Swiss, Romney took that proposal to Mass, and Obama thought going with a Conservative initiated plan would make it more bipartisan (it didn’t, but mainly because republicans hated Obama).
Definitely not.
IMO the most distinct parts of the Swiss health insurance system is that (1) copay is obligatory but limited (i.e. healthcare isn’t free but it’s not expensive either), and (2) it’s individual, companies cannot pay for it, so there’s no US-like extreme benefit of having a good job.
In the Netherlands we have those two as well, but it is also regulated: - the cheapest plan must not cost more than 115 eur (dont know exactly), and it has mandatory coverage (‘basisverzekering’) - there is a maximum copay of 850eur per year (‘eigen risico’) - some services are not allowed to have copay - low income people can have extra subsidies to pay for insurance - insurance is mandatory - insurance is a personal thing, not a work-thing. Your work absollutely knows nothing about your health insurance
Due to the regulations it is not a big run to the bottom
Yes, having lived in Switzerland I experienced that, and it was the personal buy rather than having group plans was the feature missing from the ACA the most.
aca di. implement a market, it's just that most people buy through their job, because if that's legal you obviously want to be part of a larger bargaining pool for buying.
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