Legalize Catastrophic Insurance

OCTS opinion – July 7, 2015

Legalize Catastrophic Insurance

We all know Obamacare was passed hastily, with many flaws. One of the selling points was protecting people against catastrophic medical expenses. In practice, however, the law’s gold-plated coverage of trivial expenses has priced many people out of affording basic catastrophic protection.

Here’s a solution: many states, such as Colorado and Washington, have recently legalized marijuana, even though marijuana is still technically against federal law. So why don’t states legalize affordable, catastrophic health insurance?

Technically it’s not permitted, due to provisions in Obamacare, but states legalizing truly bare-bones catastrophic insurance would give millions of people displaced by Obamacare affordable protection against the worst possible disasters. Allowing this costs us nothing, gives people choices, and unlike marijuana, it’s even good for them!