Thadius
Posts: 5091
Joined: 10/11/2005 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MrRodgers quote:
ORIGINAL: Thadius quote:
ORIGINAL: slvemike4u And these are the very people the system needs to bring cost down...we all know how insurance works right? Yep, theoretically the more folks added into the pool the lower the cost per individual in terms of premiums, that is of course based on the health and age of the folks being added. If a young healthy person has a choice of paying a $300 fine out of their tax return, or paying $1200 - $3000 a year in premiums.... which do you think is more attractive? Especially, with the fact that they can jump into a policy as soon as something major comes up seeing as the insurance company will have to cover any pre-existing condition. See it is a double edged sword. Well not quite. There must be some medical history to previous conditions and sufficient for your new insurance co. to come up with a profitable premium offering and a fairly high deductible. Plus that new pool of policy buyers will be windfall profits for insurance companies. BTW that's millions of new policy holders that aren't sick at all. Sometimes even that doesn't work. A friend of mine bought health insurance from Kaiser for her and her two teenagers. Her daughter had a long known pre-existing respiratory condition. They thus knew all of the specifics of her condition and based their premiums in all three members of the family's health history. I believe 'full' coverage including hospital services and surgery, had her paying $1,200/mo. in premiums. Now that she has hosp./dr. bills for her daughter so far and running up of some $16,000, you've got it..."well your daughter had a pre-existing respiratory issue...we no pay." I understand what you are saying, however we are talking about how things are going to play out under the new law. I contend that young adults will pay the fines rather than pay monthly premiums, because: - it is cheaper
- if they need care they can purchase insurance at the time of need
- the insurance companies will not be able refuse to pay because of pre-existing conditions
I further suggest that: - most of the new enrollees will be those that require it for health reasons
- most young healthy folks will not enroll except as needed
- because of the base of folks that will enroll premiums will in fact go higher across the board
- folks like me will not enroll, so that we have some standing to challenge the constitutionality of the mandate
This is my opinion, but I think it is a fair assumption to make. I could be wrong and young folks may put the mandated insurance purchase above cash in hand for other needs and wants.
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