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Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform

2013-09-03 · John · watch on YouTube · US politics & society · advocacy activism

John argues that tying health insurance to big employers and denying coverage for pre-existing conditions keeps would-be entrepreneurs like Henry Reich and Hank from innovating, so publicly subsidized coverage and the ACA grow the economic "pizza".

What is said

00:00:00 — A brief defense of capitalism: the economy as a pizza that innovation and competition make bigger

  • ★★★ John returns to the subject of America's inefficient health care system to make a capitalist argument for reform, starting with a brief defense of capitalism. — 00:00:00 · United States
  • ★★ John says that in the US the poorest 40% of Americans get less than 0.3% of the economic "pizza", which he calls problematic. — 00:00:00 · United States
  • ★★★ John: thanks to innovation and competition capitalism makes the pizza bigger over time, so even a constant percentage slice means more pizza; that is why people now have refrigerators. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ John concedes that innovation usually means more use of non-renewable resources and new damage to the ecosystem, then waves it off: "whatever, free pizza". (playful) — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ John: the only way to get that growth is to make the world safe for innovation and competition, which also creates jobs; the US health care system is bad at facilitating this. — 00:00:29

00:00:58 — Employer-based insurance and pre-existing conditions make insurance hard to get outside big companies

  • ★★ John says most Americans get health insurance through their employers; the vast majority of companies with more than 50 employees offer health plans. — 00:00:58 · United States
  • ★ John says his family gets its health insurance through his wife's job. — 00:00:58 · Sarah Urist Green
  • ★★★ John says that outside big companies insurance can be hard to get at all, because insurers can deny coverage based on past health problems called pre-existing conditions. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ John: this causes irrational choices, as people stay at jobs with big companies or remain full-time students just to keep guaranteed health insurance. — 00:01:27

00:01:27 — Example: Henry Reich, the ACA under-26 rule, and MinutePhysics/MinuteEarth

  • ★★★ John says Henry Reich, losing insurance after college, considered physics graduate school to keep it; the ACA let him stay on his parents' insurance, so he could work at a tiny video company, leading to MinutePhysics and MinuteEarth. — 00:01:27
    • number check: 2008 — doubtful
  • ★★★ John says the Affordable Care Act entitles young people to stay on their parents' insurance until 26, and without that rule none of a child of the brothers's projects would have happened. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says MinutePhysics and MinuteEarth have been watched hundreds of millions of times, making viewers smarter and enlarging the pizza. — 00:01:56

00:02:26 — Example: Hank's ulcerative colitis, Montana catastrophic coverage, and the ventures and jobs it freed him to create

  • ★★★ John says Hank has ulcerative colitis, a chronic, very serious and extremely expensive illness, so no insurance company will ever choose to insure him. — 00:02:26 · Hank Green
  • ★★★ John says Montana's catastrophic coverage plan caps Hank's out-of-pocket costs at $10,000 a year; before that law Hank could get no insurance and risked a million-dollar bankrupting illness. — 00:02:26 · Montana, Hank Green
  • ★★★ John: freed from saving every dollar against bankruptcy, Hank could invest in DFTBA Records, VidCon, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Crash Course, SciShow and more; none could have happened without publicly subsidized health insurance. — 00:02:55 · Hank Green, DFTBA Records, VidCon, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Crash Course, SciShow, Foundation to Decrease World Suck
  • ★★ John says Hank's investments are responsible for dozens of jobs and a significant growth of the pizza. — 00:03:24 · Hank Green

00:03:53 — Careers should not be chosen for insurance; a child of the brothers denied coverage at 26; the choice shrinks the pizza

  • ★★★ John: career decisions should be about finding where your talents meet the world's needs, not where you can get health insurance. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ John says a child of the brothers recently turned 26, aged out of his parents' coverage and was turned down for insurance over tinnitus and tendinitis, though he is very healthy. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ John says that on January 1st, 2014, a child of the brothers will be eligible for coverage, like everyone else, through the Affordable Care Act. — 00:04:22
  • ★★★ John says the choice between career and health, lived by tens of millions of Americans, has inhibited innovation, prevented job creation and made the pizza smaller. — 00:04:22 · United States

00:04:52 — Conclusion: a fiscally conservative case, privileging entrepreneurs; thanks to Hank; sign-off and four-minute-rule aside

  • ★★★ John calls this his capitalist, fiscally conservative case for health care reform: the US has privileged employees over entrepreneurs, but needs entrepreneurs like a child of the brothers and Hank to maximize growth. — 00:04:52 · Hank Green
  • ★ John thanks Hank for being the engine of American job growth and for giving lots of people jobs, including John. (playful) — 00:04:52 · Hank Green
  • ★ After signing off, John notes that informational videos are allowed to be more than four minutes long. — 00:04:52 · Four-minute rule

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