The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has released a study affirming what most knew already, we are all paying more for health insurance now thanks to Obamacare. Why wouldn’t costs rise, combine rich benefits with mandated cost controls, something must give. Tell a company to insure everything under the sun, yet not allow them to charge accordingly will simply drive competition into the ground and raise prices for those companies that survive.
The solution is fairly simple, and it has less to do with government intervention such as Obamacare, and much more to do with personal responsibility. Allow everyone to buy their health insurance on their own, nothing to do with employer sponsored group coverage. Let them shop policies in every state, and keep the federal tax incentive to save money and shop their health care, the HSA, (health savings accounts.)
For those that are non-insurable, have a federal high-risk pool, something that exists now thanks to Obamacare. The cost of the federal high-risk policies will be billions less than the $3-$5 trillion dollar Obamacare fiasco. For those that can’t afford the health insurance premiums, help them, subsidize their premium with one very large caveat… No more subsiding premiums for those making 400% or less of the poverty level as Obamacare will begin doing in 2014, lowering this percentage to 100% or less.
Health insurance is not rocket science, it is simply about spreading risk. Health insurance, or any insurance for that matter, is not about covering every conceivable medical expense for the least amount of money out of pocket. Health insurance is designed to keep you out of the poor house, but when a claim occurs it should hurt financially, nearly as much as the injury or illness itself. Pain is a great motivator, especially financial pain. More times than not it forces the individual to make changes in their life, eliminating risky behavior that likely caused the claim in the first place. Of course there are health conditions that have nothing to do with how one lives their lives, and these are claims that health insurance is designed to cover.
Obamacare is about putting for-profit and non-profit health insurance companies out of business, a stepping stone to a government run plan filled with handouts at the expense of the 50% that pay taxes. Give something for, “free,” make the individual dependent on the freebie, and you have a voter for life.
Michael Higgins