Imagine this scenario: You are 26, and working as a street mime in New York. You are perfectly healthy. You decide that you don't need health insurance. But then one day, you get cancer. You have to declare bankruptcy because you can't afford the thousands of dollars in treatment costs. And then, the new super special medicine comes out that would help you, but you can't get it because you can't pay for it and you can't get insurance because you have cancer.
Same scenario with Health Care Reform: You don't buy health insurance because you are perfectly healthy and are content to pay the $750 dollar a year individual mandate fine because it is much cheaper than buying insurance. You get cancer, and decide that now you need health insurance. And, since insurance companies can't discriminate based on preexisting conditions anymore, like cancer, you get it, and you get your medicine and you live happily ever after.
Except that health insurance premiums skyrocket as more and more people realize that they can just pay the fine and get coverage instantly whenever they get sick.
And this is why the individual mandate in health care reform needs to be much stronger. The fine needs to be more in line with what catastrophic coverage costs. Say $1500-2000 a year. This would be a much greater incentive to get younger people in the system, making it healthier overall and bringing costs down for everybody.
1 comment:
Precisely what I covered in MY health care article. The senate fine of $750 is cheap compared to the insurance some people payed. The subsidies that people receive might not be enough to cover the costs either.
Post a Comment