(Reuters) – Leading Republican senators on Wednesday introduced a bill to repeal one of Obamacare’s most unpopular provisions – the individual mandate that requires most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty.
Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senator Lamar Alexander, who heads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced the three-paragraph bill titled, the American Liberty Restoration Act, with backing from 20 other Republican co-sponsors.
It was the first time that legislation to eliminate the mandate, a linchpin of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, has been introduced by a Senate majority party.
via New Senate bill would overturn Obamacare’s individual mandate | Reuters.
Okay guys, then what? Who will pay uninsured health care bills? Who will absorb the impact of adverse selection on premiums? It sure would be nice if every American was responsible and voluntarily carried insurance, which from the individual’s perspective is “affordable,” but they do not.
American Liberty requires American responsibility. Liberty is not a free pass for anyone.
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
>> Who will pay uninsured health care bills?
Simple concept: you get what you pay for. You don’t get what you don’t pay for (if you can afford it). If you have no insurance, you have no insurance benefit. The market would respond with low cost, catastrophic products (that are currently not acceptable under PPACA). Isn’t that all we really need in any type of insurance? You don’t use auto insurance to get an oil change. You don’t use homeowners insurance to fix a lightbulb.
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Very simplistic view. If all that’s true why did we have 40+ million uninsured before Obamacare and no “affordable” insurance. Unless we are willing to simply allow people to go without care, you and I will pay just as we have been doing for years.
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A) many people CHOSE to be uninsured. Welcome to America, right? Land of the Freedom supposedly to live as you want. I’ve been to a doctor once in 7 years. Think of all the money I would have saved in monthly premiums.
B) no affordable insurance because it wasn’t a free market. HEAVILY regulated as you know. No competition across state lines. And big companies can be just as rotten as big government. Malpractice risk and inneffective reimbursement practices lead to extraneous tests and procedures.
C) going without care is different than going without insurance.
D) we really need to have a tough but honest discussion about end of life care. Quality of life is critical. Duration of life is not.
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Choosing to be uninsured is fine as long as you have the resources to pay your own way regardless of the cost. Otherwise somebody is picking up your bill. That is irresponsible. As far as competition goes, among who?
Anything that insurers can compete on represents a small portion of the total premium. Besides there is plenty of competition out there. Health care simply does not operate like other markets for products and services. Nearly 70 million Americans are covered by employer plans that are self-funded; no insurance involved and they experience the same cost problems as pure insurance. What we need is competition among health care providers at all levels instead we have overlapping and duplication. When you add new providers in an area, it doesn’t generate competition rather the services rendered expands.
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You ask:
(1) Who will pay uninsured health care bills? – Ar they proposing to eliminate Medicaid? I think not. Turns out that the suggestion that people were denied coverage due to the big, bad, insurance companies was just another lie – along with you can keep your doctor, and you can keep your plan, and your cost of coverage will decline by $2,000+ by 2014. Turns out that most of America’s uninsured, in 2013 and 2014 and going forward, hae the resources to pay for coverage or have access to coverage through employment or another source. Remember, they predicted that 4MM would enroll in the Preexisting Condition Insurance Program, and it turns out that less than 400,000 were enrolled at any time during its 3 year life.
(2) Who will absorb the impact of adverse selection on premiums? Right now, it is the taxpayers through the public exchanges. Remember that almost everyone on the public exchange is receiving a subsidy (85+%). And, most professionals believe that percentage will INCREASE as rates increase and selection worsens. Note also that the three year Transitional Reinsurance is almost at the end of the three year run – as the premium declines in 2015, and 2016 and ends 12/31/16 So, it will soon be up to the states to pass revenue measures for their adversely selected against public exchanges. You’ll see federal taxpayer subsidies to the insurers (indirectly to those who enroll in the public exchange), and state taxpayer subsidies to bail out the insurers.
(3) Will this be possible, will each and every American be responsible and voluntarily carry insurance? I can confirm that unless that happens, any “health reform” solution will, over time, fail.
Finally, you state: American Liberty requires American responsibility. Liberty is not a free pass for anyone. Let me say that this was, this is and ths will continue to be a situation where the politicians promise something to one group by taking from another group – in an effort to buy votes for the next election. Senator Long called this, long ago: “Don’t tax you, don’t tax me, tax that guy behind the tree.”
Until we are all willing to do as individuals what we are already doing as a society, there will be no solution.
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