finance
Charlie Munger Criticized U.S. Health Insurance Deductibles in 2019 Interview
In a 2019 interview, Charlie Munger said a $5,000 deductible for childbirth meant families lacked real insurance. He compared U.S. costs to Singapore's system and called parts of American healthcare inefficient.
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Charlie Munger, then Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair, said in a 2019 Yahoo Finance interview that a $5,000 deductible for having a baby meant families did not truly have medical insurance. Munger stated the whole system was going wrong and pointed to Medicare as only one part of the problem.
He added that American manufacturers carried an unnecessary health-cost burden created by what he called an insane medical system that grew through accidental and poorly designed government rules.
Munger said Singapore's single-payer system cost about 20 percent of U.S. spending while producing healthier outcomes. He said he would rather spend 80 percent less and still have healthier people. Munger described himself as one of the few Republicans who favored a single-payer system, though not the version then under discussion.
Benzinga reported that the average total cost for pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care under employer-sponsored plans now exceeds $20,000. Families continue to face thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses through deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. Munger also said the amount of unnecessary tests and prolongation of inevitable death constituted a national disgrace.
