Posted on 12/20/2017 3:44:38 AM PST by Libloather
Republicans' tax overhaul gets rid of the tax penalty for people who fail to maintain insurance coverage. If it becomes law, what happens to the deficit and the number of uninsured?
RAY SUAREZ, HOST:
As the House and Senate vote to overhaul the tax code, they're also voting to undo a key part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. The bill gets rid of the tax penalty for failing to maintain insurance coverage. It's known as the individual mandate, and it's probably been the most vilified part of the healthcare law. Joining us now is NPR health policy correspondent Alison Kodjak to talk about what happens to Obamacare without the individual mandate. Hi, Alison.
ALISON KODJAK, BYLINE: Hi, Ray.
SUAREZ: So is the assumption that lots of people will simply decide not to buy insurance if there will no longer be a penalty?
KODJAK: Well, some people will.
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
No. No. And no!
Those without insurance who get care will receive a bill, for which they must pay....
Premiums go up, more companies withdraw from the exchanges, and Obamacare is one step closer to collapse, which the Republicans will own.
Until they declare bankruptcy and the cost gets passed along to those with insurance.
that is not what is happening.
care is given. costs are rarely recovered. prices are inflated.
And they will still get care in cases of emergency?
Yes.
And the cost will still be passed on to those WITH coverage?
Of course.
You forgot to add the /sarc. I read the whole article, and that’s not in it. Since you didn’t apply quotation marks, I assume you’re being sarcastic. I’m no fan of npr, but I don’t see any liberal slant in her answers, though the host was asking leading questions that a democrat congressman would have answered in a way to o make it sound horrible. I have to give the woman credit for not making it sound awful.
“KODJAK: Well, yeah, there are definitely those people who just don’t think they need it.”
Gee, I wonder if a lot of people fully realize they need health insurance, but either can’t or do not want to pay $1600 a month for it, don’t want welfare subsidies, and don’t have the money to cover the $5,000 deductibles if they did?
ACA is all about forced and learned dependency; I am sure Kodjak fears that breaking the death grip government imposed on health insurance will open the door to some sort market-based freedom. My hope is that ending the penalty will open the door to affordable policies for medical catastrophes, with deductibles in the $8k to $10k range, and negotiated prices with service providers. When service recipients pay out of their own pocket, defensive treatment will be counterbalanced by reality.
yup - or just eliminate it.
So if you take away that mandate - that tax - then don’t you also take away the basis for Obamacare being constitutional, under the SCOTUS decision?”””
I came to the same conclusion-—I think you are totally correct.
I suspect that the real zinger is that premiums for most people will really drop. The reason for this is simple: the Democrats have zero grasp of economics.
Let me illustrate this. When the Army wanted a new .45 caliber pistol, they announced an open contract, whoever making the best gun at the lowest price would win. So every gun maker in the US quickly came out with their own model of the same gun. Not only did it get the Army the gun it wanted at the cheapest price, but every other manufacturer that lost had .45 caliber guns it wanted to sell, so the price dropped for everyone.
This is Republican capitalist economics, and it works great.
When Obama wanted new solar technology, instead of offering it in open competition, he went to his cronies, then offered them a LOT of money to make technology that didn’t exist. Crony capitalism. And it failed terribly across the board, while wasting hundreds of millions of dollars. Creativity does not work that way.
This is Democrat organized crime-style economics, and it sucks rotten eggs.
In any event, an even worse example of the failure of Democrat bad economics was Obamacare. *In their minds* it meant lower premiums for all. But it was a delusion so the reality was ever increasing premiums.
The flip side of this is that their delusion is so firmly set in their faith, that to end the individual mandate would mean that premiums will *have* to go up. Because crappy logic.
And if premiums drop a lot, they will ignore it, and rant about “millions” of imaginary people dying in the gutters because they are so incapable they cannot put a band-aid on a cut without government.
If the congress allows healthcare regulation to rightly be restored to the individual states, we will see progress. Although purchasing insurance across state lines sounds like a great idea, it is not because then it means that the Feds can regulate it. However, in some cases, multi-state compacts can fulfill the benefit of multistate insurance sales without much federal intervention.
Health care costs will definitely come down in direct proportion to the increase in the percentage that the individual directly pays for health care. Lower health care costs would also translate into lower insurance costs.
The only losers should be federal and insurance administrative bureaucrats. These positions only increase costs, reduce efficiency and increase barriers to care.
So what are liberals more mad about, stepping away from socialized medicine or losing their tax break for high state taxes?
“Until they declare bankruptcy......”
An unnecessary step for the chronically unemployed, Illegals and paid in cash types since they are judgement proof anyway.
It’s a step.
We need authentic healthcare cost reduction efforts: tort (law$uit) teform, waste and fraud reduction and prosecution, forms commonization, open pricing and competition (!), medical IRAs, health incentives, etc.
I think it is an innovation that has merit. At least you have some idea of the type of people you are dealing with.
Yes. That is pretty close to what my daughter told me about this.
It makes total sense. With insurance companies, they must take in 2 dollars for every dollar they pay out to survive. Regulation costs and overhead.
This is a lot more efficient.
Does this bill get rid of the mandate itself, or does it just lower the penalty to $0.00?
The Mennonites also do their own auto insurance. There are lots of them, plus tons of Amish in Missouri now. The Amish are a little different, they will take advantage of anything that’s free, you don’t want to give them permission to fish in your pond, or to get some apples from the orchard. They’ll empty them out. Other than that, they are good neighbors and work hard, and most all have a skilled craft.
My experience with the Mennonites support what you said.
I did not know about the Amish an fee stuff. I’ve seen some of them, but never did business with them.
Medishare is a tad like a pyramid scheme. Eventually, the money runs out.
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