tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697603232354740832.post2146476883333480589..comments2023-08-16T06:30:12.495-07:00Comments on HealthMatters: Health Reform In MassachusettsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697603232354740832.post-34781494790566508062011-05-30T00:42:49.840-07:002011-05-30T00:42:49.840-07:00Sussah, it depends on your commitment to universal...Sussah, it depends on your commitment to universal coverage. <br /><br />There are three ways to attain universal coverage: (1) Socializing the medical system so that it is tax financed and government-owned and operated (as with Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Scandinavia, and Spain). The US already does this with the VA; (2) Letting the government serve as an insurer, while providers remain private (Canada, Australia, Taiwan, Medicare); (3) mandating the selling and purchase of insurance regardless of health status (most European countries, Israel, Japan).<br /><br />If you go the insurance route, sale and purchase must be mandated. If sale isn't mandated, insurance companies will filter out out preexisting conditions and anyone they perceive as a health risk. In other words, they will try to insure as many healthy people as possible and deny insurance to as many health risks as possible. <br /><br />If purchase isn't mandated by sale is, premiums will rise precipitously because there will be an influx of high risk patients into the market without a corresponding counterbalance of healthy people. A half dozen or so states attempted to mandate sale without mandating purchase and saw premiums rise something like 60%. I believe that that is what prompted the Massachusetts law.<br /><br />In the first case, a disproportionate number of healthy people are ensured; in the second, a disproportionate number of sick people. <br /><br />For what it's worth, I believe that a voucher-based plan will also require mandates, even if proponents are conveniently silent on that point. The vouchers simply are not large enough to incent insurance companies to sell without a mandate to purchase.K.https://www.blogger.com/profile/10222703055177237209noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3697603232354740832.post-42163627552948057632011-05-27T17:30:57.779-07:002011-05-27T17:30:57.779-07:00Dear K., I am interested to know your view of the ...Dear K., I am interested to know your view of the issue of legally requiring American citizens to have health insurance, which I believe is part of the new health care reform law. (forgive me if I may have missed an earlier statement.) Do you see this as something similar to requiring that we file income tax, and everyone will get used to it? Everyone who works know that they will be required to pay income tax on their earnings, above a certain level at least. But having been born into this world is a slightly less voluntary act than working for a living. I am usually liberal-oriented in general, and the necessity for compliance in the system is logical, but somehow it seems to me a little against the grain to actually tax our being alive. thanks, spSusanna Powershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12171292385713491199noreply@blogger.com