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Exactly, which is why I believe health insurance needs to be mandatory. I don't want to pay for alternate reality me who was diagnosed 4 months earlier when uninsured. Alternate reality me would have cost the taxpayers upwards of $500,000 at this point. My salary at the time of diagnosis was less than 10% of the cost of treatment alone. My take-home, of course, was much less. And having cancer doesn't mean you suddenly don't have to pay for food, housing, utilities, transportation, etc.
Tomorrow, any person on this thread could be hit by a car, develop a life threatening illness, or a million other things. Few people who are currently uninsured could cover the cost of chemotherapy. Mine was a cheap one. If I relapse, the next stage of treatment is upwards of $1 million just for the chemo and stem cell transplant, and requires frequent (think weekly) oncologist's visits after 3 months in the hospital. Can you pay $1 million out of pocket? Half that? A third? Or would you, like most people, default, ruining any sense of financial security for the foreseeable future and pass that cost along to others?
Arguing that you shouldn't have to pay for health insurance is pretty much the opposite of "self interest."
What do you suggest that people like me do?
Can you explain how not having insurance will "cost the taxpayers"?
Can you explain how not having insurance will "cost the taxpayers"?
I don't pay my $300,000 chemo bill, nor the $30-40K a year in follow up costs because even the follow up costs are far more than my take home salary. Who do you think pays?
I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but here's an important reminder: The 30 million or so uninsured that Obamacare was supposed to bring under the coverage umbrella -- remember that being used by Obama and Democrats as a really good reason to have universal health insurance?
Well, with Obamacare enacted, we will STILL have some 30 million uninsured. Whether it's cancer or other health issues...they will have no coverage.
The Republicans generally don't remember what their own past proposals have included - because practically the entirety of ACA includes provisions that past Republican proposals have included.
All the liberals left out is the part about paying for it...
I don't pay my $300,000 chemo bill, nor the $30-40K a year in follow up costs because even the follow up costs are far more than my take home salary. Who do you think pays?
Me.
Now if we had a system that everyone paid into from the start of their working career and continued to pay their entire life it wouldn't be a bad thing.
As a society I think we can balance the moral responsibility and the financials. What we can't have is people crashing their cars and then deciding to buy auto insurance.
I don't pay my $300,000 chemo bill, nor the $30-40K a year in follow up costs because even the follow up costs are far more than my take home salary. Who do you think pays?
I don't know if anyone has mentioned it, but here's an important reminder: The 30 million or so uninsured that Obamacare was supposed to bring under the coverage umbrella -- remember that being used by Obama and Democrats as a really good reason to have universal health insurance?
Well, with Obamacare enacted, we will STILL have some 30 million uninsured. Whether it's cancer or other health issues...they will have no coverage.
What's wrong with that picture?
Nothing. It's what they want. An excuse to control more by powermongering politicians but yet solve nothing at all.
Now if we had a system that everyone paid into from the start of their working career and continued to pay their entire life it wouldn't be a bad thing.
As a society I think we can balance the moral responsibility and the financials. What we can't have is people crashing their cars and then deciding to buy auto insurance.
We also can't have people being told they can't buy car insurance because of a 10 yera old parking violation, and then when they get in an accident, tell them "tough luck." Also, you can walk or buy a new car. Can't replace your body.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pnwmdk
You asserted the taxpayers.
I'm asking you to tell me how it happens.
I typed too fast -what I really should have said was anyone who pays for medical insurance or is able to self pay. Our medical costs are so high in part BECAUSE people don't pay - upwards of 40% of bills end as bad debts in many hospitals. The costs are shared one way or another. It's just that now, the people who are disproportionately hurt are people like me who pay their bills, pay their insurance, and are hit with higher bills when we do get sick - which in turn up the cost of health insurance. It just spirals.
If we're going to share the costs anyway by necessity as a business practice, why shouldn't everyone be required to pay? Everyone will at some point need medical care - and with nearly half of the population at one point getting cancer (and huge increases of survival rates requiring more specialized long term care) - so it makes sense for everyone to pay something - and while I think there needs to better mechanism to make all pay besides just fines, it's a start. The ramped up fines certainly help. In reality, this issue is exactly why we need to have a single payer system so EVERYONE has to contribute.
I say this as someone who even throughout cancer, paid taxes and paid for insurance. And as someone who worked 50+ hours a week even when on chemo, created and managed an award winning multi-channel marketing campaign with less than 6 months of professional experience during that time, and is driven as all hell - I fully expect to pay a whole lot more taxes in the rest of my life. Even before I got sick, I supported the ACA.
Now I answered your question. How about you answer mine? What should someone like me do? Early to mid 20s, life threatening illness with lifelong medical implications, never able to buy private insurance? And "hope you don't lose your benefits-giving job!" is not a sustainable answer.
What would the GOP propose to offer for folks like him?
???
The same thing the rest of us cancer survivors do- work in a system which provides group insurance. It is not a big deal. I prefer working in a large multi-specialty clinic and would have no desire to be in solo practice. However, if I was, I could not purchase insurance.
Insurance is an issue of mathematical risk determined by actuaries. An "n" of one does not allow much shared risk and would be ill advised to insure.
Why bankrupt a system and deny affordable healthcare to millions of people, simply to satisfy the ego of ONE MAN?
Obamacare is a disaster for both healthcare and business. Only a lunatic, or a knee-jerk liberal, would support Obamacare.
How about this: insurance is for the healthy, care is for the sick.
If you have a pre existing condition you get automatic coverage on medicare.
We dont need obama care. Run a preventive coverage program covered by a national sales tax and allow a expansion of medicaid for hospitol coverage and preexisting.
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