What ‘Crisis’ for Insurance?

The current insurance crisis is, at least partly, a result of the desire to remove ourselves from day-to-day risk. Yet this risk is a necessary factor in rational decision-making process that presumably drives our free market system.

This suggests at least a partial solution to the problem of rising health-care costs. If insurance were not available to cover, say the first $1,000 of our annual medical expenses, we would have to be more responsible in our market decisions. My guess is that such a policy would first lead to many empty doctors’ waiting rooms followed shortly by lower prices for a visit to the doctor.

The poor could be cared for by a good national health-care service staffed by salaried doctors. I doubt there would be any shortage of truly caring doctors willing to work on a secure salary under a truly free market health-care system.

DONALD SCOTT

Santa Barbara