A Canadian Business article explores the implications that Obamacare will have on the American insurance industry. In the US, private insurance companies make a profit off selling policies to those who choose to and can afford to buy them. With Obamacare in effect, Americans are now required to buy health insurance and private insurers are obligated to sell coverage to all comers. The private companies must provide publicly-mandated insurance and can no longer control every aspect of how they do business. They are faced with the decision of how to conduct themselves under the new health reform. Should they keep up the private business mentality of maximizing profit or become public entities and align themselves with public values? Can they do both?
to economist Milton Friedman, the social responsibility of business is to “make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom”. I believe that providing more affordable and accessible health care should become an established ethical custom. If the private insurers focus on doing that, they would still make money as they would have more customers and they would be benefiting society. Now that is profiting in an ethical manner.