Health care spending is very, very asymmetrically distributed. A top 1% account for about 10% of health care spending. Health care needs are increasingly uninsurable because in order to be insurable, a risk must be fortuitous.
Economist Ed Dolan of the Niskanen Center talks about employer-based health insurance with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Dolan discusses how unusual it is relative to other countries that so many Americans get their health insurance through their employer and the implications of that phenomenon for the structure of the health insurance market. Dolan explores the drawbacks of this structure and makes the case for what he calls Universal Catastrophic Coverage.