The Universal Catastrophic Principle

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Right now, if you look at where healthcare money comes from, the government pays for about half of the national healthcare bill. Others pay another 20% of that, which to my way of thinking is largely also should be counted as part of the government's share. The idea would be that this would be given to you by government, covered by taxes for the part that wasn't covered by the deductible.

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.