House GOP to force vote to nix individual mandate from health reform

From The Hill

My absolute statement: I FIRMLY oppose the GOP on this and everything else.

:shrug:

No..

In some States, there are co-ops, non-profits, etc...

And I assume that eventually and incrementally the age for Medicare eligibility will fall and give more people the "public option."

And you can assume whatever you want, but the fact remains that the public mandate by no means assures that the person paying the premium will get medical care if and when they need it.

similarly non-profit businesses can be to for-profit ones.
Particularly in health care and insurance.

:shrug:

But is there a better mechanism for ensuring fairness in terms of eliminating denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions? Without a mandate of some sort, people will decline to purchase insurance until they get sick, then demand coverage after years or even decades of neglect of their health.

Single payer would eliminate that, of course, but that's not an option right now.

How is being forced to buy something we can't afford to use because of copays and deductibles fair? All this law did was mandate that private ins cos will always have a constant flow of our money with which to pay for lobbying against any attempts to end this criminal scam. They will also use our money to build bigger mansions and take even more extravagant vacations. Hooray for them.

I'm sure the Aetna's of the world will price the copays and deductibles of the chronically ill at a price point where they will be just as screwed as they were before. Most of us who are not upper middle class or rich already have endured "years or even decades of neglect of their health". Now we will be forced to pay for the privilege of not getting care.

Are you looking forward to your "bronze" plan or are you one of the lucky people in life?

There has to be some kind of mechanism for getting people to sign up for insurance before they need it. I'm not enthusiastic about it, but it's what we have. I'd certainly like to see single payer available to all, but since that doesn't exist, then this is the system we have to work within.

As such, nobody will buy health insurance until they actually need it. And no doubt some wouldn't purchase insurance until they had a diagnosis of some dread disease in an advanced stage. Then, being Americans, they would want gold-plated treatment (aka a miracle) to save them after years of neglecting their health, refusing to get regular check-ups, and disregarding any health advice (all the while ridiculing people who did do those things as being suckers for paying into and participating in the system). As long as people can get something for nothing, they will.

At least, with the individual mandate, there will be some controls on the system, controls that are missing right now. Yes, it will be cumbersome and awkward, and will take time to work out (hopefully toward single payer). But magic wands being in short supply, neither you nor I can wave one that replaces the current screwed system with something better overnight. I fully expect a rough transition, but I also expect it to be a little better than the current system, which is even worse.

For the insurance companies..

For regular Americans, not so much.

we adopt a truly-universal system where everyone is automatically covered.

The GOP must be stopped from defacing health reform.

If they succeed, HCR is back to square one.

Having health insurance is no guarantee that one will be able to afford actual health care..

I've seen literally dozens of posts here on DU from people who have insurance but cannot afford to use it due to high copays and high deductibles.

Sure, you'll have insurance but insurance is not the same thing as coverage.

Ask all the people here on DU that have insurance but can't afford to use it thanks to high deductibles and copays, I've read many such posts over the last few years.

And I have yet to see even one Democrat rub that into these fools.