As a business owner, I know that the old system didn’t work either. My desire to provide at a minimum, a catastrophic health care plan to my employees was killing us a year at a time. Unfortunately, there are a group of people in this country that are basically “uninsurable” due to their preexisting conditions and high cost of treatment. They need to be included in a pool that is subsidized in some way so as to take their costs out of the larger, general pool to reduce costs for the rest of us. I disagree with the idea of “mandatory” participation, but the reduced number of companies offering affordable basic plans has made the liberal goal of single payer less and less avoidable for the self employed unemployed. Essentially making them a high risk group similar to drivers that are uninsurable due to multiple high costs claims and DUI, etc.
Women of child bearing age; smokers; homosexual club goers; people with terminal diseases. And we are all going to die someday, so unless you die in a car accident, mugging, or other sudden form of death, your last 6 months of life will be expensive.
It comes down to a question of who is going to pay too much or not enough for their insurance. Along with, should a routine visit to the doctor office be covered by health insurance, or is it like getting an oil change and not getting reimbursed by your auto insurance?
Intelligent debate on all of that could result in a health insurance model that is fair to most, and provides charity coverage to a sustainable (AND AFFORDABLE) portion of the population.
Or we could just have another shouting match with no good results. Like Obamacare.