Seems that everyone is talking about yesterdays SCOTUS decision on the affordable health care act. Guess that means that I need to weigh in as well. Let's clear something up first. The first thing I need to tell you is that , for the most part, I agree with what is in the act. What I don't agree with is the mandate that everyone have health insurance, the misnaming, and the lack of protection from the insurance companies. These all go hand in hand so I will start with the most basic problem, the name.
This act does nothing to affect the cost of health care. Why do I say this? Firstly, it does nothing to address the issue of health care costs. The bill deals almost exclusively with health insurance and provision of care. In otherwords, who pays for the health care. Either insurance companies, the states, or the federal government. The same as it was before. This has no effect on the cost of health care. At best, the name should be the health insurance reform act.
Now for the meat of the problem, the mandate. The supreme court ruled that there will be a fine for those who don't have health insurance. The first thing you need to realize is when this fine is levied. It isn't on your tax form or by the policeman pulling you over, it is levied when you visit a doctor without health insurance. This means that you still visited the doctor without health insurance and have to pay that bill and now you have an additional fine on top of it. So lets figure out who wouldn't have health insurance.
When it comes to health insurance, There are several categories. There are those that can afford it and pay for it. Those that can afford it, think they are healthy enough not to need it and thus don't buy it (a minority). Those that can't afford it and qualify for state or federal health care (Va, Medicare, etc.) and are on it. Then there is the last 2 categories. These two are the ones hurt most by this bill. The first category is those that can't afford health insurance but aren't poor enough to get government health care. Then there are those that have been denied health insurance for pre-existing conditions.
Let's talk about those with pre-existing conditions and how this bill does nothing to help them. While it is true that health insurance companies cannot deny coverage to someone with preexisting conditions, there is no provision to make that affordable. We are talking about private comanies here. They exist to make money, not to care for people. Everything they do needs to be profitable. They aren't going to offer insurance at reasonable rates for everyone if it affects their bottom line. Here is what I see happening. A person with a pre-existing condition applies for health insurance and the company, because they have to offer insurance, quotes them an annual rate that will cover their costs and then some (for profit, remember). Now, the applicant can't afford the coverage and thus declines it. The insurance company complied with the law and offered to cover you, you chose to decline it adn thus it is your fault you aren't insured. Nowhere in this law is that prevented.
As for those who couldn't afford health insurance already, once again, there is no provision to make it affordable or get them on government programs. All we've done is make criminals out of people who are just trying to survive and increase the profits of a bunch of health insurance companies.
The idea that your health insurance will go down as a result of this law is highly laughable. The reason is simple. These companies are making huge profits on those who are already paying, they aren't going to jeopardize them for this law. They will make up the costs in whatever way they can. This means by raising rates for those of us that are healthy should their lawyers advise them to insure the previously uninsurable. What motivation do they have to lower rates? To be nice? They're trying to make profits. If they can increase rates to increase profits they will. At some point someone is going to mention auto insurance, so I will address that right now. Yes, there are a ton of auto inurance companies out there and they all claim to save money. The fact is, auto insurance rates have gone up signaificantly over the years at a rate higher than inflation. But yours has gone down? Has your driving record improved? Did you get older? If you compare apples to apples, auto insurance has gone up, not down. Sure people are always saving according to the commercials, but what they don't tell you is that people don't switch unless they are going to save money or their insurance dropped them (in which case, they usually don't save money). The reason these people save money is because, for the most part, they haven't reviewed there policy in years and were getting charged at the rate they started in which didn't reflect there current status (good driving, accident free, getting older, etc.). Health insurance will be no different. Why should it be? They both are working for profit.
Now for the solution. In order to make health care affordable, there has to be a baseline alternative. Something everyone can afford and sets a bar that the health insurance companies need to meet. The only way to do this is through a government offered insurance plan. The way that would work of there is an allowable deduction for health care. If you take the deduction, you are saying you have purchased health insurance from a private company. If you opt to not take the deduction, you are enrolled in the government health insurance which is a basic insurance (regular preventative medicine, emergency care, etc.) for one year (your next tax return). Then, if you go to the doctor and you don't have health insurance, instead of a fine, you get and IRS audit, are investigated for tax fraud/evasion, and face jail time. This would increase tax revenues, make health insurance affordable for all, and allow freedom of choice of providers.
Let's go back to the point I made about the unisured visiting hte hospital. Under this bill, a fine is levied if you visit a doctor, for any reason, without insurance. Those that are currently visiting doctors wihtout insurance usually do so via the emergency room. This wouldn't change. Those without insurance would visit the ER and then have a fine to pay ontop of an ER bill. As I mentioned before, the primary group that does not have insurance are those that can't afford it. If they can't afford health insurance, what makes the politicians think they will pay for an ER visit and a fine. They would already ignore the bill from the ER so what is ignoring a fine. Health care costs stay the same and insurance goes up. We all lose.
This is my opinion and I take responsability for it. If you can dispute any of this, I welcome it. I love being proven wrong. OK, I don't love it, I do accept it though and learn from it.
Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.
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