Lots of Problems with the Affordable Care Act in addition to the Mandate
In a rush to move forward, the plan is ill-advised and now ends up before the Supreme Court which hopefully will strike down most of the Act…and yes, I tend to be a Democrat.
First, the mandate. The goal of the individual mandate is to have individuals buy insurance policies to reduce the number of uninsured and to relieve the burden of the costs of other people paying more in order to cover the uninsured.
Unfortunately on its face, using the assumption that no one will be denied medical care if they need it, it’s surprising that notices to uninsured individuals will be delivered through the IRS, in other words to taxpaying individuals omitting those who are outside of the tax system such as illegal immigrants who also have access to healthcare in this country.
From the start, the government uses its ability to regulate only those it already regulates, eg taxpayers to get more money rather than approaching the real expense of reining in the costs to the system from those illegally outside of the system such as illegal aliens.
Next it is interesting that the government uses a fine rather than instituting a mechanism for charging a specific amount to enroll those uninsured into some sort of default insurance program in the format of, “If no election is made the individual/family will be billed for a specific number of dollars and enrolled in a specified plan.” If paying for the cost of healthcare requires health insurance as the Act presumes, a fine seems to be a punitive and ineffective approach to achieving that goal of the Act.
ADDITIONAL PROBLEMS WITH THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: The Act essentially ignores the tremendous burdens of the costs of healthcare on families where someone requires health services because of illness.
While generating thousands of pages the Act is largely silent concerning the fact that families with health insurance go broke or become impoverished attempting to pay for medical services when they’re sick.
The lopsided logic that perpetuates the insurance-company preferred business of covering preventive care instead of effectively covering the costs of medical treatments for the sick that are crushing families makes the bill an out-of-touch effort to simply have some healthcare reform in place.
THE HEALTHCARE ACT IS NOT BETTER THAN NOTHING IN MANY OF ITS PROVISIONS: Many fellow democrats will say it’s better than nothing but I do not agree. While identifying the problem of the uninsured and the problem of the cost of medical care, the Act largely ignores the fact that the answer must address cost controls in addition to including the removal of lifetime limits so that people’s health insurance coverage can be counted on to cover them in the event of illness.
The Act is ridiculous in its focus on the finite costs of preventive care which rarely amount to a sum that will bankrupt a family while ignoring that upon the receipt of a diagnosis that requires some medical treatment individuals are often left financially devastated because their insurance coverage is inadequate. The ACT further ignores that this is the reason that many people opt out of health insurance coverage.
It is a horror that we have sold preventive services in place of improving the affordability health treatments for the 100 percent of the population who will at some time need medical care regardless of how many preventive steps and tests they take.
It is ridiculous that the sums being charged to uninsured taxpayers for their reluctance to buy insurance policies that likely will leave them financially devastated in the event they become ill are not being used to purchase some sort of default insurance which the government finds so important for all to have.
It is absurd that the bill intends to fine those in the system, whom the IRS knows about who are primarily citizens paying their taxes rather than attempting to reduce the costs to our healthcare system from those outside the system, the millions of illegal aliens in our country.
In the confusion healthcare has been identified as a right only for SOME of our citizens since there has been no discussion of health services being denied to those without insurance but for those who are able to afford to pay health insurance premiums and are known by the IRS it is a privilege for which they must pay premiums.
So what should be done since in some way this is going back to Congress…Expansion of Medicare/Medicaid is reasonable (and I’m sure Republicans will flip out over that). However, by expanding those services in terms of thresholds for eligibility and creating guidelines that must be followed by States in order to have Federal subsidies contribute to their administration of the programs, the government creates options. Just like states that receive funds for other things from the Feds and comply with Fed guidelines to get at Fed money. And for those who choose not to purchase health insurance, states can decide how to handle their uninsured.
