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Comment by p_roz | Hacker News Reader

Health insurance should be decoupled from employment. Its tax advantaged treatment causes distortions in the costs and coverage offered. I’d rather see people get more of their compensation in cash rather than a health insurance benefit. It would especially help poorer workers who would have more flexibility and choice.

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100% agree here. It was originally offered as a work around to wage controls.

More employers ought to do this, for sure. If I'm a young, healthy, twenty-six-year-old man, I almost certainly don't need medical care. If I've got a good job, I can essentially self-insure. I might want to keep actual insurance, i.e. high-deductible protection for catastrophic events, but nothing more.

Think about the consequence for society as a whole if everyone did what you did.

1. I act in the interests of society, rather than my own. It's the issue of the prisoners' dilemma; I'm not going to be the sucker.

2. I honestly don't know what you mean here. I will almost certainly not draw much in the way of health expenses; this is exactly the way insurance is supposed to work. What is wrong with not billing every thing to insurance and not paying for the privilege? If every one did this, consumers would be price-sensitive and costs would drop.

I am not sure what you are describing is "exactly the way insurance is supposed to work." If you have an open mind about it, you might want to read about the three-legged stool[1].

[1] http://web.archive.org/web/20170716081909/https://www.nytime...

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