Is it possible to fix the health care system?

While nobody is still talking about “death squads,” the complaints now focus on high premiums and the “mandatory” coverage requirement. (Photo: Shutterstock)

It has been over 50 years since this writer attempted to make a living selling health and life insurance as a licensed Florida agent. In the two months I held that job I managed to sell one policy, but the underwriters rejected it for “pre-existing conditions.” At the time, I knew quite a bit about health insurance, but little of it is the same in the 21st century.

Instead of a private, regulated medical insurance industry, we have state-by-state regulated health insurers and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), a federal program reviled as “Obamacare.” Where someone is insured under their employer’s policy, disputes are subject to federal, not state, courts as such policies fall under the Employers Retirement Income Securities Act (ERISA).