A Real Public Option

One of the most notable things about ski trips to the States from Canada was that they offered “U.S. medical insurance”—a buy-in that cost around the same as a lift ticket if you wanted to ski Stowe instead of Tremblant.

One of the scariest moments in Sicko is when the Canadian relatives note that they don’t dare go to the States, telling about a friend whose injury while golfing in Florida ended up costing him about US$60,000 out of pocket.

U.S. native Tina Fetner at Scatterplot recapitulates those feelings in relating her ASA experience. Fortuantely, her experience has a cheerful happy ending. And her closing line summarizes why there is such a push among people for a “public option,”; the current U.S. system doesn’t work:

The idea that the insurance payouts are an unproblematic obligation that the insurance company just lives up to without question had become so foreign to me that this feels like bonus cash. This is what insurance should be.

The Devil will still be in the details, but at least there might be details, instead of a 300% increase in non-treatment insurance payments.