Stick figures: Insurance plan needs realistic incentives

We’ve never thought of season football tickets as a carrot, nor the loss of them as a stick. But state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland’s game plan for mitigating Oklahoma’s uninsured problem included a suggestion that failure to buy health insurance should result in a penalty and loss of down.
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Loss of tickets or a driver’s license or homestead exemption were suggested as a way to punish those who can buy a health insurance policy but don’t do so. Holland backed down from the idea after a public outcry, saying, "It was one small part of a larger discussion, and it was generally in jest.”

She should know better. Oklahoma’s uninsured rate is no laughing matter. Still, Holland is right in saying that failure to carry an insurance policy, when one is made available, results in shifting costs to policyholders and/or taxpayers.

A better suggestion comes from lawmakers such as state Rep. Kris Steele, co-chairman of a legislative task force on health care. He favors a system in which no one would be forced to have insurance but one in which no one would have an excuse not to — such as giving the uninsured an option to enroll in a subsidized plan when seeking health care.

These citizens would be given a one-time pass on paying for care, in exchange for enrolment. This pay-to-play approach is far better than the carrot/stick method.

Moving the sticks on the uninsured problem may require going for it on fourth down. But let’s not throw the ball too far.