“Something has to be done. The cost of medical insurance is through the roof.” So goes the usual middle class call for government healthcare. There is a near universal appeal to government action on healthcare. We hear daily about the crisis that our healthcare system is in, and calls for action. Rather than taking these at face value and repeating them take a look beneath the surface.

Insurance is a subject that is little understood. It is common to hear complains about paying for insurance to cover a possible event. It is felt that to pay this money is a waste because the event covered may not happen. This is the wrong way to look at insurance because insurance is an exchange of risk. When you own a car you take a risk every time you pull out of the driveway. You risk running into a person or vehicle ad causing thousands of dollars in damage. With the purchase of auto insurance you are paying a company to take your risk—they get their money and you get to relax a bit. The company judges the amount of risk—the likelihood of a covered event—in figuring how much to charge you for the coverage. Risk is always there, whether you keep it or pay another to take it. In a manner of speaking everyone has insurance of one form or another: commercial insurance, where you pay another to take your risk or self-insurance where you cover your risk yourself.

Just like auto insurance, health insurance is paying another to take your risk. Given enough time, or enough opportunity to abuse our body we all need healthcare. Whether it be to confirm our health, to fix our lack of it, or alleviate our pain when we get beyond help, doctors are a major part of our lives and as we turn from health-repair to healthcare our use of medical resources will only grow. We can decide, like many have, to self-insure. Choose to replace premiums with the gamble that we will not have a major medical need. Unlike auto insurance health insurance is something the use of which is inevitable. One could drive for decades, pay insurance premiums every month and never have a claim. This money, appears to be wasted, but since one accident can financially set a family back for generations it is worth paying. Health insurance will be used, it is inevitable, barring death.

An auto insurance company can actually reduce its cost to the individual client because they will always have a number of clients never filing a claim. The costs are spread through the system: the company is able to turn a profit, pay its claims and keep its prices low. With Medical insurance this is impossible because if you are breathing you will eventually need to see a doctor. This is why companies offer incentives and preventive care to get and stay healthy. The same concept shared about auto insurance works in reverse in healthcare. If a person enters an emergency room for help they must be treated, by law. If they do not pay, the medical hospital, clinics and doctors are not going to just eat these costs, they pass them on to those who pay. Costs go up for everyone.

No one with medical insurance truly believes it is too expensive or they would drop it. They keep it because they understand its value. Where we spend our money shows what we value. If I spend it on insurance then I deem it more valuable than other possible purchases. It is more valuable because without it one little health problem could cost far more. The desire is for someone to take my risk from me without charging me. You either keep the risk or pay the cost for someone else to take it. Too many think the government is the option. The cost of government healthcare will be far beyond what it currently costs you for your insurance. The higher taxes, the bureaucratic red tape, the rationing, the loss of quality all are part of the cost of such a system. When the government takes your risks it will always cost you more with less satisfying results. One phrase should cause all Americans to run: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”