Posted on 03/29/2012 5:25:27 PM PDT by Kaslin
The Obama administration told the Supreme Court this week that the Affordable Care Act's mandate that everyone buy insurance is vital to providing universal coverage and lower insurance costs. But ObamaCare won't solve either problem, as government reports show.
Despite the mandate, there will still be 27 million uninsured a decade from now, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The promised uninsured rate — 10% in 2022 — isn't much better than in 1980, when it was 12%, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.
The law also tries to cut the uninsured population by making it illegal for insurers to deny coverage because of preexisting conditions, called "guaranteed issue.
But fewer than 4% cited poor health as a reason for not getting coverage, according to the CBO. Meanwhile, 71% cited the high cost of premiums.
To the extent that poor health puts insurance premiums out of reach, ObamaCare's "community rating" reform could help, since it bars insurance companies from basing premiums on health status. Nevertheless, it will still leave millions without coverage.
Premiums Won't Come Down
The administration also told the Court that the individual mandate will cut insurance costs by eliminating cost-shifting — where uninsured force others to pay for their care. But it appears that, even if the law does reduce cost shifting, the mandate will not result in lower premiums.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
so we gotta have this hideous law that affects 300 million people just so that they can give free health care to the 15 million who wont buy it?
Nearly 3/4 of the so-called 40 million without insurance can't afford it, so Obamacare stabs them in the back and tries to force them to buy it anyway. And these are probably the people that voted for him.
Buying insurance for Health care, Car Insurance, Fire Insurance, Flood Insurance, etc... is still available to the user. That alone is a great advance in democracy! Yes, insurance is going to protect us!
Okay, I say that all folks should have death insurance since we all are gong to die sometime. Suggest that you go for burning - cheaper...heh. Anyway, most will rot in hell anyway... (sorry).
The problem with opinion pieces like this is they attempt to prove ObamaCare won’t work. They completely miss the bigger picture which is individual liberty. I guess we’re to assume that if the individual mandate did result in universal coverage, it would be OK. What if the government simply nationalized all health care and increased income taxes accordingly? Would that be fine since everyone would be covered?
Liberty is more important. It doesn’t matter if one approach is more efficient than another if both approaches take away our right to make our own choices. I honestly think Democrats love it when political discussions devolve into which method works best. It draws attention away from the fact that they are seizing powers they have no constitutional or moral right to seize, and we shouldn’t get drawn into it. Once we start talking about which government expansion works best, we’ve already lost!
I think part of the problem could be alleviated by making the health insurance premiums tax deductible.
Premiums are deductible for income tax. If paid by employer, he deducts them. I’m self-employed, so I deduct them myself. However, I am not able to deduct before FICA taxes.
“bill won’t make any difference ...”
If it doesn’t, that’s not a violation of the Constitution, so I’d say that issue is irrelevant to the Supreme Court’s analysis.
“bill won’t make any difference ...”
If it doesn’t, that’s not a violation of the Constitution, so I’d say that issue is irrelevant to the Supreme Court’s analysis.
Yes, it's always about the costs nowadays. So many, including the MSM, simply can't or won't admit that the bigger effort is about the push into socialism. They either believe it can still work, don't know the difference between social/economic ideologies, or just want stuff.
It's all about what feels good, rather than what logically works within society. I thank Europe for showing us how bad socialism has failed...once again. Spain is on the verge of becoming another Greece, at least 3 fold. Stand by - things are going to get way worse in Europe before or if they get better.
They already allow these people to steal them healthcare services from hospitals with the 1986 COBRA act. That is in fact a large part of the reason healthcare costs are so much more expensive today. Now they are trying to fix the problem Washington Liberals created with COBRA using a new mandate upon individuals.
Its like Washington Does not even grasp the reason why costs run out of control in the first place. They don’t grasp that people are not moderating their uses of the service because they have no cost incentive to make better health choices!
They got no incentive because either they are not feeling that cost by reason of thief under COBRA, or by reason of health insurance(whether it government or private). In either case an individuals health choices have little financial consequence to them.
As such they tend towards the more expensive, both in treatment options and in risky behavour.
“so we gotta have this hideous law that affects 300 million people just so that they can give free health care to the 15 million who wont buy it?”
Ding ding ding. Give this guy a seegar.
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