My Socialist Insurance Payments

[Kung Wu]

It would probably never happen, but what kind of impact would there be if health insurance was completely decoupled from employment? With the exception of some life insurance, most insurances are not tied to employers. Would that help? Would it be politically impossible.

Is Milton Friedman ever wrong? :)

Milton would argue that removing the tax incentive for employers to provide insurance would be enough to break the cycle you are concerned about. He also said it is politically impossible to go down that path because neither party will touch it. But he certainly recognized that having a 3rd party covering the tab leads to overuse, just like the Medicare/id system does.

But this is all just mindless drabble -- great economists don't know anything.