Make a Health Care Policy Into an Investment Asset Hedging Against Personal Risk

Young people like to take risks with their careers. Moreover, their parents often are willing to pay to minimize them. If a health insurance policy can be recognized as not a compliance issue, but a risk-hedging asset, young people will willfully comply with the individual mandate in their own interest: that of having a secure source of health care, no matter what.

This will be assisted by government crafting policy that encourages health policy assets that can be purchased at locked-in prices, like a futures option. Instead of a grandfather gifting a savings bond to his granddaughter, perhaps he’ll open an interest-bearing health-savings account that will entitle her to a specific, ACA-compliant policy at a predetermined price upon maturity.

She’ll eventually appreciate the policy, and its dedicated funding, as an enabler of her own risk. Moreover, she’ll view insurance more favorably if it’s something she already has, rather than something she must onerously apply for.