Private insurers Christmas wish list: all truly sick folks to be on government funded insurance---
---while the privates collect premium checks from those of us who do not use our insurance. And the privates set the premiums and we are forced to pay them.
For decades the private insurers have counted upon the government to take over the care--and cost for the health care of all the truly sick folks. They do this by tying your insurance to your job. Too sick to work? Congratulations, you now go on Social Security disability or Medicaid.
In the US we spend twice as much per person per year on health care as any other country. Half of that money is federal (i.e. comes out of our tax coffers). Half is private. Basically, we have two health care finance systems, one a socialized system just like the ones in France and Canada and the other a massive for profit system.
The private insurers make money by cherry picking healthy members. Now that they can no longer exclude those with illness, they stand to lose money (or at least make less). But they can not just come out and say "We don't want to insure the sick and needy." That would make them sound like mercenary bastards.
So, instead, we will be told "We would love to write you a policy for affordable insurance. But that nasty old Congress told us that we have to write a policy for your neighbor with congestive heart failure (CHF) and that is going to cost us a a lot of money, so you have to help pay for your neighbor's care with higher premiums."
This being America, the predictable response is "Hey, don't make my private insurer write a policy for my neighbor with heart failure. Then I can pay less! His heart failure is not my problem. Why should I pay for it?" Except...
...you will pay for it. The way the system works now, the guy with CHF will eventually get on Medicare. Or Medicaid. Or both. And you, the taxpayer will pay for his care.
No problem, you say. I don't pay much tax. The rich folks will pay for his CHF care. My premiums will be small.
That is exactly what the privates want you to say. Then, you will pressure Congress to remove the portion of the ACAs that forces insurers to accept all applicants at more or less the same rate. Except there will still be a mandate for you to buy insurance---and you may get a nasty case of sticker shock when you see just how much the privates want to charge you for health insurance once they discover that you have existing acne.
Be glad we have a Democratic president to veto any legislation that comes out of the next Congress. Because the private health insurance industry is going to be hard at work trying to pervert the ACA so that they can use it to force you to buy their insurance---and force you off their insurance when you start costing them money. And they will start by astro-turfing---by enlisting a bunch of folks to say "Hey, my premiums are too high! My insurer would charge me less if he could exclude those with pre-existing conditions."
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