HEALTH INSURANCE
The United States and numerous other countries do not provide universal health insurance coverage to their populations. Conventional approaches to health insurance have typically adopted a neo-classical economic perspective, assuming that individuals make rational decisions to maximize their preferred outcomes, and businesses (including insurance companies) make rational decisions to maximize profits. In this approach, individuals who are risk averse will purchase health insurance to reduce variation in the costs of health care between healthy and sick periods, particularly to insure against catastrophic medical events.
In empirical studies, however, individuals find it difficult to forecast their preferences and do not always make rational choices. They also find it difficult to assess their health risks and to know how much insurance they need. By contrast, medical ethics has focused on equal access to health care, but gaps persisted in terms of philosophical justification for risk management or for addressing loss aversion, regret, anxiety, forecasting, discounting, and redistribution through health insurance per se.
We developed a moral framework for analyzing health insurance and conduct empirical studies that evaluate health insurance in terms of an individual’s well-being and social welfare. Our theoretical grounding is flourishing and capabilities.
