This blog contains posts and comments written by students in Dr. Tufte's economics classes at Southern Utah University.
3/31/2010
Why everyone wont have health insurance
The goal of the new healthcare bill is to ensure that everyone young or old, rich or poor has health insurance, however over 30% of uninsured adults are between the ages of 19 and 29. Many people in this demographic myself included could afford to get health insurance. They choose not to because the likelihood of needing it simply doesn’t out way the cost. In my case with the exception of work physicals I haven’t been to the doctor in over 7 years. If I do get sick I can go to the doctor for a simple illness for an insignificant amount of money compared to the cost of insurance. The only reason I would purchase insurance at this point in my life is to prepare for the unlikely chance that I could develop cancer, diabetes, or some other illness requiring long term care. For me and likely many people sharing my situation what the health care bill has done is to eliminate the only real reason I had to buy health insurance in the first place. Under the new plan I will have two options get Health insurance or pay a 750 dollar fine. The fine can be paid, and a person can go without insurance without any fear of not being covered in the future, because you can’t be denied for preexisting conditions. Doesn’t this defeat the purpose of insurance? Don’t we get insurance to prepare for the unknown? What the healthcare bill has created is a large portion of a demographic that will still not have insurance but will pay 750 dollars a year in fines.
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6 comments:
While the fine is only the greater of $750 or 2.5% of household income per person if you are married you're paying 1500 if you have to pay it any way you might as well have the insurance to go with it. If you are not married and in the 19-29 rang you now can stay on your parents insurance. so you still might as well have the insurance cause it's not going to cost you 750 to stay on your parents insurance. http://www.kff.org/healthreform/upload/housesenatebill_final.pdf
I came across this article that talks about fines for not having healthcare. A new plan is circulating in Washington that should cause everyone to worry. It's stating that people without any healthcare coverage could be fined up to $3,800 dollars a year. I feel the same way you do there is no way everyone is going to buy healthcare insurance. And when the government does start fining people the only people who are going to get hurt are the people who are contributing to society.
http://www.komonews.com/news/national/57835032.html
I read the article about the $3600 fine. I'm not so sure that it will pass even in the article Democrats were backing out. But then again that didn't stop them from doing it last time
In my opinion, the fact that the government make the population pay for a basic health insurance is a mistake in a country like the US. In the US, the health care system is being always private, and it had always worked. There is three kind of people in the US: Those who can afford a health insurance and have it, those who can afford health insurance payments and decide not to have it and, those who cannot afford to buy health insurance and receive help from the government to pay for their health necessities. So my question is: If there are people who decide not to have a health insurance, why force them to have it?
-2 on Luke (I wish your spelling and grammar was as clear as your thinking).
Anyway ... this has never been about getting people like you "covered". It has been about getting you to pay into an insurance risk pool that you'd be unwilling to otherwise.
The way you make insurance work is to have enough good risks in the pool to cover the bad ones. The moral hazard problem though, is that if those good risks find out that it's a bad deal, they won't play the game. Obamacare is all about forcing them to.
Tyler and Elijah: the way the politics work is that you get the situation made illegal, with a fine, and then you jack up the fine. Take cigarettes for example: I don't like smoking any more than most people, but I also know that the taxes drawn from cigarettes have covered the healthcare costs for a long time. They've just chosen to spend that money on other stuff, and to continue to demonize smokers.
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