11th Circuit Court of Appeals finds Health Care Mandate Unconstitutional

[RobAnybody]

Regarding the reason for the mandate, you can't 1) force insurance companies to ignore pre-existing conditions without 2) having the mandate. They're completely linked. Both, or none.

The reason is that if you just do 1), then people can wait until they're sick, sign up for coverage (they can't be turned down or charged more), get treated, then drop coverage. Without 2), everyone starts doing this. You get cycles that look like this:

Month....Sick?....Premium.....Treatment
...1........No.......$0..............$0
...2........Yes......$200...........$600
...3........Yes......$200...........$7,200
...4........No.......$0..............$0
...5........Yes......$200...........$2,200
...6........No.......$0..............$0
(sorry for the dots - it's difficult to set up a chart here)

You just paid $600 for $10,000 worth of treatment. In months where you just get a checkup, you just pay the doctor directly $80-$120. Sure, it saves the consumer a ton of money, but how long can the insurance company stay in business always paying out more than they take in?

You may not care if the insurance companies stay in business, of course, I'm just saying they can't if you only do 1) without also doing 2).

 

[GhostWriter16]

If someone's sick that often, they're a loss for the insurance company anyways...

That said, I don't support either of them. In fact, I don't support the Health Care Bill at all. The only good thing in it is the Hyde Amendment.