I agree with the OP. Makes me believe in the conspiracy that this whole bill was to force UHC. It would be like enforcing a boat insurance policy that was purchased as the ship was taking on water. A private insurer could not possibly be forced to take that risk, but they will in 2014.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see every sick person get the treatment that they need. This law seems to stick insurance companies in the ass with the express purpose of forcing them out of business, leaving no other option but for the feds to step in.
Health insurance and welfare are tangled up with each other in the US to the point that many people don’t understand the difference. Insurance companies are highly regulated, such that they have to offer coverage they and their customers wouldn’t freely agree to, and conversely, government health care like Medicaid, while heavily subsidized, does usually carry some sort of copay or deductible.
Insurance is pooled risk. Welfare is getting something from the government that you didn’t pay for (except in the form of taxes that are not tied to your personal health situation.)
The most ridiculous manifestation of this is the new requirement that all health insurance plans must cover preventive care. There is no risk involved in preventive care - the expenses are completely predictable - and therefore no justification for it to be insured. The only reason it has been covered at all is the tax treatment of employer-provided insurance. With the new mandate, it’s pure welfare. I have to pay more in premiums than it would cost me to just pay the doctor directly, and the excess goes to cover poor people. If they wanted to make preventive care a government benefit, they should have just paid doctors directly by the government and not rigged up this stupid system that takes a chunk of money that would normally be spent directly on health care and give it to insurance companies (who don’t deserve it because they’re not bearing any risk) and to their politician friends (who don’t deserve anything but the lash.)
Agreed. This would be like requiring auto insurance policies to cover gasoline, tire wear, and oil changes every 3,000 miles. How do you insure against a guaranteed, predictable expense?