Another product of "You Got To Pass it To See What's In IT"
What a fiasco!
The article is wrong about one thing. As I understand it, insurance plans CAN charge higher premiums to people with pre-existing conditions ... how much higher was to be determined.
Meanwhile it set out specific ratios that insurance comapanies can up-charge smokers and older persons (it did not put an age on the term ‘older person’ that I am aware).
The law is very capricious. Why only charge smokers and ‘older people” more. Why not people who do illegal drugs, or who engage in risky sex practices or who have very dangerous jobs or hobbies (for examples) ?
Rule of thumb: More government makes everything worse.
REF:”As a result, ObamaCare will likely cover far fewer uninsured than advertized. There's even a chance that, if all goes wrong, it could actually make the uninsured problem worse.
The individual mandate, for example, is a cornerstone of ObamaCare’s effort to expand coverage. But tax experts who've studied how the IRS will enforce the mandate conclude that it's likely to be ineffective, because the law makes it virtually impossible for the IRS to collect the tax penalty from those who don't pay it.
Under normal circumstances, the IRS has broad powers to collect taxes from those who don't pay what they owe. It can charge civil and criminal penalties, impose liens, and seize assets and bank accounts.
But ObamaCare specifically blocks the IRS from using these enforcement tools when it comes to collecting any unpaid ObamaCare tax penalties.
These restrictions “make it unlikely the IRS can effectively enforce the individual mandate,” according to a detailed analysis of the tax penalty by Jordan Barry and Bryan Camp, law professors at the University of San Diego and Texas Tech University, respectively.
“The individual mandate,” they conclude, “may not actually be mandatory after all.”
The problem is that if the mandate doesn't work, ObamaCare could make the uninsured problem worse, at least in the individual insurance market.”
What a silly question. Name one thing the government has gotten its claws into that it DIDN'T eventually 'make worse'!
In the "inner city", the Democrats have "block captains", who report to "precinct captains". Their official duty is to get Dem voters motivated and to the polls. One important way they do it is by solving problems for Dems in their area. They make sure that you are signed up for every social program and benefit that they can possibly get you onto, and deal with the bureaucrats for you when you have a problem.
Now extend that concept: if you need medical care and it's denied, you have to go to your Dem precinct captain. If you are a good and active Dem, then he will solve your problem. If you are NOT a good Dem (or, worse, a Republican), you will NOT get your medical care issue solved. Thus, your life, and the lives of your family, will depend on being seen as a good little Dem.
If your employer drops coverage and dumps you into a non-existent exchange in a state which has refused to fund one and for which Obamacare has no funds to start its own?
Yeah.