Critical Illness Insurance and Socialized Health Care

In July 2007 issue of Best’s Review, if you have a subscription, you’ll find an article called “Critical Care,” which discusses the current and potential future market for critical illness insurance, either as a supplemental rider to an existing health insurance policy or as a stand-alone. One comment that struck me as odd appears on page 88:

The United States is caught in a catch-up game when it comes to critical illness sales.

Great Britain, Australia, Ireland, Japan and Canada have had much success in the market, “Those socialized medicine countries have been successfully selling it as a ‘don’t die on a waiting list’ type of insurance.”

My question is this: Are we really “lagging behind” if there’s simply no market for a “don’t die on a waiting list” policy in America? Do we want to foster that sort of environment?

To be sure, there are a number of reasons why CII hasn’t caught on here, including the regulatory environment, but don’t you think that at least part of the reason is because there simply isn’t a very great danger of dying on the waiting list, in a country where there’s practically never (unless you need a kidney or something) a waiting list?

So, socialized insurance requires supplemental insurance so that you don’t die because you have the socialized insurance. Sicko, indeed.