I’d like to ask her if she thinks we should do away with mandatory auto insurance, and if not, why not.
Oh that one is easy. The answer is “nobody likes socialism.” If that fails, she’ll fall back to “freedom” or possibly “the power of the free market.”
Enidigm
3123
Here’s the problem with the Health Care Bill, at least, insofar as i can perceive it;
You mandate health care coverage without mandating insurance cover the full cost of treatment. Marginal income persons without any disposable income are going to be, in some ways, worse off with insurance they’re mandated to buy but cannot afford to use.
Is this perception wrong?
Sort of like how we fell back to “she’s cute”!
The simple answer is: you don’t need to own a car; you can choose not to buy one, if the expense of owning & operating one (inc. insurance) outweighs the benefits. Whereas “forcing” everyone to buy health insurance or pay a fine is a tax in all but name.
Which I sorta agree with. I also don’t think that’s a bad thing. Then again, I believe single-payer makes more sense than the fragmented patchwork of private health-insurance companies we currently have, so I guess I’m just a goddamn dirty commie-loving traitor.
That’s my main concern: that the bill mandates coverage but doesn’t provide enough protections or cost controls to ensure that lower-income people, especially, get adequate bang for their buck. Athryn’s link shows there are already insurance companies looking for ways to subvert the intent of the law.
Has anyone ever proposed a state level single-payer system with the federal government acting as the standards body and intermediary? Even Wyoming seems like it has enough people to make it work. That seems like a zillion times easier to transition to than trying to create a monolithic national system.
Do you live in the same America I do? Granted, if you live in New York city, you probably don’t need one… but America, as a country, is just more spread out. It took me awhile after I got back from Europe to get used to not walking everywhere. I would argue that in many cases, yes, you do need a car simply by virtue of distances involved.
antlers
3128
A big part of the bill is dedicated to determining what insurance companies have to cover for the required insurance, to make sure what you (are forced to) buy is actually useful
Ah, gotcha. I guess that, like mrmolecule, I didn’t really see buying a car as an “option”. So maybe I’d ask the woman in the Grayson video a slightly different question, like, “Should we all just chip in for highway maintenance? Should we allow factories to govern their own polluting practices?” I still might be missing her point.
Actually, I don’t think that’s the critical distinction. I think the critical distinction is that the reasoning behind requiring auto insurance is really to protect OTHER drivers. That’s why the law only requires you to get liability insurance. OTOH, the purpose behind health insurance is to protect yourself. So I don’t think the analogy holds for that reason.
Menzo
3131
Well, I’m not sure the analogy doesn’t work.
The spirit of forcing people to have liability insurance is to protect other people from having to pay for your mistakes/misfortune.
The same line of thinking can be said about forcing people to have health care. That prevents me (and other tax payers) from having to pay when you go to the emergency room for treatment.
Yeah, I actually like that way of thinking. But I don’t think it’s as generally convincing as the auto insurance argument, because a lot of people don’t look at the long term that way. I think they should, so I agree with you. But psychologically, many just don’t. With someone hitting your car, the problem is immediate and obvious.
Houngan
3134
Exactly the boat I’m in. I hate the idea of any sort of mandate, but I can really see how this one is necessary at this time. And I also agree it’s some bullshit that the Dems wanted a competitive public option to keep the insurance companies honest, the Republicans jerk off over free market analysis nightly, but both are scared to death to do it.
H.
Menzo
3135
I don’t think there’s any real way to play this out into the future and not see a world with a single-payer system. All these mandates and exchanges and tax credits and extra taxes - it’s all just a confusing, interim step.
I hope so. Maybe this bill will allow people to see the benefits of government interference while also seeing the downside of these insurance companies controlling our health.
Having the govt. tell people their kids should be covered now and having insurance companies respond with “Fuck no they aren’t!” is a good start.
I hope you’re right, but don’t underestimate the power of money to make a simple system insanely complex so some asshole can make a buttload of money exploiting the loopholes.
JeffL
3140
We’re going to find out just how corrupt our Congress is by their response to such issues.
