Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Why the Health Care Reform Bill Exacerbates the Problem

(This is a copy of a note I posted to facebook earlier today as I was researching the health reform legislation.)

As we've all heard, one of the things this reform does is to prohibit those deep-pocketed insurance companies from imposing limits on coverage of pre existing conditions. And they will now have to accept anyone who applies for coverage, no questions asked.

Now everyone has to purchase coverage (or will, as of some future date). If you work for a large employer, they have to offer it or pay a penalty. If you work for a small employer or you're self employed, you have to purchase the coverage for yourself. The penalty if you don't? $95. That's annually. Yep $95 per year. So the young healthy person has a choice, pay several hundred $ per month for insurance coverage or pay a $95 penalty once a year.
If I'm that young healthy person and I know that if I ever got really sick I could get coverage any time, I'm going to take my chances and pay $95 per year.
Now what do you think is going to happen to the cost PER PERSON for the folks who are covered?

To be continued...

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