Submitted by R. Barth, Apr 4, 2007 08:47

Perhaps the village that it does take, after all, is the universal risk pool. That simple concept was the basis of all the European social insurance formats, and they have done better over time than the business model which is not serving our needs here. The concept is that the risk (here, the risk of devastation by illness requiring costly care) is best diminished when it is spread across the broadest population - hopefully everybody. As soon as the business model modifies this approach by trying to exclude those at highest risk, the principle is violated because the basic purpose of the whole enterprise has changed from social welfare to profit taking. And as soon as individual responsibility for sound health-preserving behaviors is promoted by the threat of getting sick and having no care, we have become asocial. Part of the fable is that the grasshopper was taken in by the ants, to their credit.

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