One time emergency care, and subsequent default isn’t the same as long term care provided by the now mandated service. Someone breaks a leg, gets the flu or has a heart attack, we are talking about a one time, 30-100k loss. Someone comes down with skin cancer and suddenly gets insurance, you are talking about 400k+ of treatment and meds over years…[/quote]
OK, but on the flip side of teh coin you have MANY more people who are paying that penalty and not ever needing any long term care whatsoever. You are a numbers guy–is there no way you can make that work mathematically? It seems certain to me that a $400k leach can be a drop in the bucket compared to the revenues from all the ones trying to game the system. It’s like Vegas baby, the house always wins.
I’m not terribly crazy about the individual mandate to be quite honest. I am very surprised it survived the SCOTUS review. But my alternative would probably be a lot less palatable for most here.
[quote]VTBalla34 wrote:
I’m not terribly crazy about the individual mandate to be quite honest.
[/quote]
I thought that the individual mandate was the only sensible part of the bill. I’d like it to only force minimum coverage of emergency care and serious illness.
Oh no freeloaders are being forced to do something they don’t want to? Boo hoo! It is about time they paid their way rather than stealing from the responsible.
The masses want the government to do something about the spiraling costs of health care. Government has been the problem all along. Now there’s a nice little crony-capitalist/government symbiosis happening, and the people still think more government is the answer.
One time emergency care, and subsequent default isn’t the same as long term care provided by the now mandated service. Someone breaks a leg, gets the flu or has a heart attack, we are talking about a one time, 30-100k loss. Someone comes down with skin cancer and suddenly gets insurance, you are talking about 400k+ of treatment and meds over years…[/quote]
OK, but on the flip side of teh coin you have MANY more people who are paying that penalty and not ever needing any long term care whatsoever. You are a numbers guy–is there no way you can make that work mathematically? It seems certain to me that a $400k leach can be a drop in the bucket compared to the revenues from all the ones trying to game the system. It’s like Vegas baby, the house always wins.
I’m not terribly crazy about the individual mandate to be quite honest. I am very surprised it survived the SCOTUS review. But my alternative would probably be a lot less palatable for most here.
[/quote]
The individual mandate survived SCOTUS because Congress has the power to impose a tax. That whole time Obama talked about “this is not a tax”, the only reason it passed was because it IS a tax.
[quote]drunkpig wrote:
The masses want the government to do something about the spiraling costs of health care. Government has been the problem all along. Now there’s a nice little crony-capitalist/government symbiosis happening, and the people still think more government is the answer.
[quote]Testy1 wrote:
I didn’t see anything about skyrocketing insurance rates on there. Could you maybe point me to what you are referencing?[/quote]
I have been reading all sorts of stuff regarding the exponential increase in medical costs. Most of what I read points to LBJ’s medicare/medicaid bill back in the mid 60’s as ground zero.
So I googled “historical healthcare costs in US”, and found this graph on a blog. The blogger cited the link that you asked for.
It is my contention, and it seems to be backed up by the numbers I’ve read, that the government created the runaway healthcare cost train 50 years ago. Up until the 60’s, healthcare costs were relatively flat. Up until the 60’s, the government pretty well kept their noses out of it.
[quote]Testy1 wrote:
I didn’t see anything about skyrocketing insurance rates on there. Could you maybe point me to what you are referencing?[/quote]
I have been reading all sorts of stuff regarding the exponential increase in medical costs. Most of what I read points to LBJ’s medicare/medicaid bill back in the mid 60’s as ground zero.
So I googled “historical healthcare costs in US”, and found this graph on a blog. The blogger cited the link that you asked for.
It is my contention, and it seems to be backed up by the numbers I’ve read, that the government created the runaway healthcare cost train 50 years ago. Up until the 60’s, healthcare costs were relatively flat. Up until the 60’s, the government pretty well kept their noses out of it.
[/quote]
The aging population (baby boomers) and increases in life expectancy would have to be factored into this equation as well.
Like most things, the rise in costs have multi layers of causes, government dbags being one of them.
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
The aging population (baby boomers) and increases in life expectancy would have to be factored into this equation as well.
Like most things, the rise in costs have multi layers of causes, government dbags being one of them. [/quote]
Obviously there are other contributing factors, but when the rapid increase in the rate of increase began, the boomers were in their mid 20’s, or younger. So there’s a couple of decades, probably until the early - mid 90’s where it could be argued that the baby boomers were actually helping to keep insurance rates lower.
I’m going to blame the government first and foremost, followed by the crony capitalism fostered by a grotesque violation of the commerce clause, then the baby boomers, then the increase in life expectancy.
Oh no freeloaders are being forced to do something they don’t want to? Boo hoo! It is about time they paid their way rather than stealing from the responsible.[/quote]
Sounds like the precursor to good ol’ fashioned 1930’s style jack-booted thuggery to me.[/quote]
Oh no freeloaders are being forced to do something they don’t want to? Boo hoo! It is about time they paid their way rather than stealing from the responsible.[/quote]
Sounds like the precursor to good ol’ fashioned 1930’s style jack-booted thuggery to me.[/quote]
More like a return to traditional values…but the idea that you should not be a burden on society is lost on modern day conservatives and liberals alike.
Oh no freeloaders are being forced to do something they don’t want to? Boo hoo! It is about time they paid their way rather than stealing from the responsible.[/quote]
Sounds like the precursor to good ol’ fashioned 1930’s style jack-booted thuggery to me.[/quote]
More like a return to traditional values…but the idea that you should not be a burden on society is lost on modern day conservatives and liberals alike.[/quote]
How is the government forcing people to buy into a pool, in order to lesson the burden of government regulation of the free market, “traditional values”?
I mean I haven’t read every history book, but I don’t remember the founding Father’s talking about government mandates as quality American values.
