MORAL FOUNDATIONS OF HEALTH INSURANCE
Developing a framework for analyzing health insurance and financial protection requires a grasp of underlying theoretical foundations. We created a moral framework for analyzing health insurance: that universal health insurance is essential for human flourishing. The central ethical aims of universal health insurance coverage are to keep people healthy, and to enhance their security by protecting them from both ill health and its economic consequences. Universal health insurance coverage requires redistribution through taxation, and so individuals in societies providing this entitlement must voluntarily embrace sharing these costs. This redistribution is another ethical aim of universal health insurance. Conventional measures of financial protection address neither of these key ethical goals adequately. A lack of access to insurance- provided financial protection increases vulnerability, undermines well-being, and hinders human flourishing.
KEEP PEOPLE HEALTHY
PROTECT FROM ILL HEALTH
PROTECT FROM ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES