The individual mandate is, by far, the most complained about portion of the Affordable Care Act. As I write this blog, we are waiting to hear the Supreme Court’s ruling about it. Conversely, the Swiss government has required people to purchase health insurance since 1996. You probably haven’t heard about that, though, because the Swiss didn’t get outraged about it.
In 1996, the Swiss government created federal laws that were designed to control the costs of health insurance and to ensure equitable coverage for everyone. One of the requirements that went into affect made all Swiss residents purchase health insurance from competing providers.
You might not have heard about this because the Swiss didn’t freak out about it in the way that many Americans did about the insurance mandate that is part of the Affordable Care Act. Many Europeans find the reactions of Americans in regards to being required to have health insurance coverage to be quite bizarre.
Tsung-Mei Cheng, who is a health policy research analyst at Princeton University, had this to say about the views of people who live in Switzerland, (and other countries), where health insurance is universal:
“…individual freedom doesn’t mean you should be free to live irresponsibly, to say, ‘I’m young, I’m healthy, why should I need health insurance?’ They see it as a civic duty”.
Another reason why Switzerland changed its system of health care in 1996 had to do with the way people were, at that time, receiving health insurance coverage. The ability to get affordable health insurance coverage was directly tied to employers.
This meant that people were staying with jobs that they were not happy with, and didn’t want to be doing, specifically for the health insurance coverage that came with the job. This was seen as having the potential to hold back the Swiss economy. So, Switzerland made changes to the way their health care system functioned.
To me, this situation sounds similar to what the United States is dealing with right now. The majority of Americans who currently have health insurance coverage are only able to afford it because it was from an employer sponsored health plan. Lose the job, and your health insurance disappears along with it. Change jobs, and you fall into a gap where you are uninsured, (assuming the new job will offer you a health plan).
There is great potential for the health care system of the United States to improve so that all Americans can find affordable health insurance coverage. There is also the potential that the Supreme Court will deem the entire ACA as unconstitutional, and all the protections it currently provides will disappear. We are living in very exciting times.
Image by kmaschke on Flickr