Seems to me that one of the problems with the current debate is that health care is treated as a single economic good.

Why not treat health care as a collection of multiple economic goods? This way, specific solutions could be applied to each type of health care good. Some thoughts on this:

1. Emergency and new illness - might try to work this the same way as auto/home insurance.

2. Chronic and terminal Illness - possible candidate for public financing; government could realize economies of scale; chronic might be defined as any illness lasting longer than 12 months

3. Maintenance - consider putting the onus on employers and insurance companies who stand to benefit the most from healthier employees/clients

4. Pre-existing - for illnesses that do not qualify as chronic, but exist during change in employment (or insurance company)

Obviously, the devil's in the details and a lot of work would have to be done to make this work. One of the biggest challenges is to make sure financing burdens are placed on the right party. Also, two contentious issues, public funding and universal coverage, would need to be worked out.

What do you think of this idea or comment?
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I disagree