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If only we had things like mutual savings banks, or cooperative insurances, or...
by soco 4y ago
If only we had things like mutual savings banks, or cooperative insurances, or...
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoi never mentioned savings banks as an example requiring large scale. and indeed, they appear to need the "more than a block or 2, less than a city" scale. health insurance is a different story, at least in the era of modern health care where particular treatments can cost tens or hundreds of thousands of currency units. it is hard to make the insurance pool concept work without enough people (and enough health-diversity) in the pool. In my home state (new mexico) this is a problem given a state-wide population of only 2M people and multiple insurance possibilities. i don't know what the limit is, but i'd guess that it's at least several hundred thousand and possible a few million.
- runarberg 4y agoPublic health insurance seems to work fine for Iceland—a country of less than 400,000. I suspect dozens of thousands should be plenty given a healthy and diverse economy and plenty of preventative care.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoGood data point - thanks.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoIt also works in Liechtenstein, which is approx. 39000 folks.
- PaulDavisThe1st 4y agoNow that does seem surprising. The insurance system is entirely internal to Liechtenstein ?
- MichaelZuo 4y agoI'm not an expert on their affairs but from what I understand, largely yes. There may be some procedures that require travel to a larger Swiss hospital.
- runarberg 4y agoIt is the same in Iceland (although you’d more often travel to a Swedish hospital), but it is my understanding that it is still (mostly) covered by the national insurance.
- soco 4y agoHello from Switzerland: the biggest health insurer is about 2 million people, the 10th big is 200.000 and still works fine. Yes they're private but the strong regulations make them work very much the same - and work they do. I'm not sure why some US people keep arguing that stuff cannot work because it doesn't work in the States, when all evidence points to the contrary.