The bright side of private health insurance companies

There are some things single-payer just can't provide

The market breeds innovation.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Image courtesy iStock)

A lot of liberals are eager to push a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health insurance system. Efforts are underway to pass state-level single-payer in California, and a national bill is gaining steam among congressional Democrats. The implicit argument is that single-payer is obviously better than private health insurance, so we ought to just get rid of the private marketplace altogether.

But there is a case for holding onto a private market in insurance. It's just a bit more subtle — and interesting! — than most people realize.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.