News Flash: Universal Coverage Isn’t Free

This amazing observation comes from the New York Times’ review of the documentary “Critical Condition.”:

Its real shortcoming, though, is the way it invokes health insurance as a pain-free panacea: If only X had had insurance, this $300,000 medical bill would have disappeared.

Sounds great, but as we’re finding out now in relation to the Wall Street bailout, someone has to pay for everything. Insuring everyone may be a worthy goal, but the film leaves largely unaddressed the broader questions of whether we collectively can afford the many treatments being made available by the rapid advance of medical science.

Print