Also not sure how relevant it is.

But they also did not inflation adjust the Cadillac tas.

With Gruber who knows what the actual objective was.

(raises hand)

I was self-employed for decades, and finding basic insurance was near impossible. I kept an insurance policy that was probably worthless but made me feel better about potentially getting hit by a truck. But for the most part, I paid all my medical bills out of pocket.

I’m a teacher now, but our local union negotiated a fair option for everyone. A decade or so ago, the district stopped paying for our insurance, and upped our pay. We can purchase our own insurance from a few options negotiated by the state, paying the full cost. These options are very good in terms of coverage and co-pays–far better and cheaper than we could get on individual policies. But they are far more expensive than they’d be if everyone were forced to buy a policy–and everyone isn’t. Teachers can opt out, buy an individual policy, or go without if they want–which many of the younger teachers do.

Many unions force everyone onto policies, negotiate a fixed price that is advantageous for married teachers with two kids, but far more money than it would cost the average single person (union of two jobs ago, I’m looking at you). Many teachers with families bitch about the high cost of insurance, but I think this is pretty fair. And, of course, we get the deduction for paying for our own insurance.

But I’d still be happy with paying half as much for major medical and catastropic, if it were an option.

Disheartening words, but I fear probably true.

Prior to Obamacare all uncompensated care was trivial. It was 2% of health care spending — a rounding error in the costs on the system imposed by the ACA, an ACA pushed down the population’s throats largely based on the impression that getting primary care in emergency rooms was expensive!

You are saying that if you can’t afford private health insurance (a cost stop based on age is okay), then it is subsidized for you. That is the very root of health care cost disease.

The funny thing are those peoples that say for this we need protection for people with pre-existing conditions.Thats however wrong. First of, to have this protection for babys and children might be ok, because they have a lifetime to pay for it, but for everyone else this means the following:
# Coast along without paying for health insurance
# Get expensive disease (mostly when you are old)
# Get insurance and pass on costs

This is unstable and unsustainable, so what do European nnations, UK and Canada: Universal Health Care with forced insurance.
But they forgot the other half of the equation that Arnold talks about (market forces for most medicine).

In Germany, private insurance costs between 300 – 600 € / month depending on your plan (deductibles up to 2000 €) and age. Most plans include a cost stop for when your age increases.

Imo, this is ok and should be what your life and health is worth. Especially, when the government run health care costs almost the same! Except that it is slightly cheaper for families and retirees.