If SCOTUS reverses Obamacare law we would have to go back to "pre-existing conditions"

[rainy]

otherwise people would just wait until they are sick to get insurance. That's the whole point of making everyine buy insurance, so they don't wait until they are sick to get it and Obamacare has eleminated pre-existing conditions so there would be no reason to get insurance first.

[rainy]

1. single payer is the answer for now

[nobodyspecial]

6. It may be the best answer

Last edited Mon Mar 26, 2012, 12:37 PM - Edit history (1)

but if you think it is going to happen now, you are engaged in magical thinking. Defeat of this means we wind up with nothing again, not something better.

Remember the fight just to get this through. Why do you think that Americans and Congress are suddenly going to embrace government-run health care?

Tell me exactly how this happens.

[rainy]

8. I agree with you completely. The right would never allow this to pass nor

would some Democrats

[karynnj]

9. Why "for now" It is the best long term answer, but one that can not be passed through

Congress. The alternative to ACA is NOT single payer, it is what we had in 2008 adjusted by anything that could pass a far less Democratic Congress than we had in 2009.

[lovuian]

15. yes if the Supreme Court knowcks this down

the next HUGE election issue is Universal care

either way the vote is a win win

America can not keep fighting two battles on their GDP
Military or healthcare

they consume too much of the pie...Universal care will drastically cut the healthcare pie allowing the Military budget

but if they continue the Healthcare rising at higher than inflation rates will reach a point that only 1% of the population can afford it

it really is about economics

[wiggs]

2. If they uphold the law, we might see more gop flexibility and maybe they would be more open to

a public option and eventually single payer.

We only have the mandate because the public option wasn't politically viable. If the gop really believe the mandate is the end of freedom and democracy, maybe they would now go for the public option....

[rainy]

4. Not if it gives Obama any credit or liberals and progressives.

[lacrew]

3. People will pay the penalty?

The pre-existing condition component has always been a tricky one to me.

Theoretically, couldn't a person pay the penalty for a period of years, and buy it when a big event occurs (injury for example), undergo treatment, and then drop the insurance once healed...ready to pay the penalty until the next health emergency....having the unintended consequence of reducing people's use of preventative care?

[rainy]

5. That was probably factored in and it would still give a big boost to insurance

companies if everyone had to pay the fee or have insurance. Of course insurance would allow for more preventive care.

[kestrel91316]

7. SINGLE. PAYER. RIGHT. EFFIN'. NOW.

[nobodyspecial]

11. Well, if you put it in all caps

I'm sure that it will happen.

Tell me the steps we should take to accomplish this.

[kestrel91316]

13. Wow. Do consider taking your smartass attitude someplace else.

Completely uncalled-for attack.

[nobodyspecial]

14. I didn't call anyone names

I challenged you to provide a strategy and you tell me to leave. Who's attacking who here?

[zipplewrath]

10. It is unclear

First you'd have to know if the justices canceled the whole law, or just the mandate provision.

And be careful about the "they'll just wait" assumption. There will always be those people, even with the mandate. They will just pay the tax. Even more so, many uninsured people are the "transient" uninsured. They are unemployed for some period of time, but less than a year. It isn't clear how the IRS will enforce this mandate. People could easily make sure they had insurance "some time" during the year and that would exempt them from the fine. Alternately (much like people do with car insurance in some states) they could buy insurance for the "month" that the IRS says they have to show being insured (Like December, or January).

But people who can get/afford insurance will most likely get it. Sooner or later we all get sick, and even if they wait until then, once they have it, they will tend to keep it, if they can afford it. If they can't, they'll drop it, mandate or not.

The mandate wasn't necessary and was put in to a great degree because the insurance companies wanted it and the GOP originally though up the idea so Obama thought it wouldn't be controversial. It isn't all that critical of a feature from a fiscal standpoint. You can tell because the "fine" isn't anywhere near what a policy would cost. When Obama actually agreed to put it in, he gave the instruction that it not be to onerous. The mandate is necessary if employers aren't the primary access to health insurance. "everyone" has a job and that takes care of a tremendous amount of the population. The rest will always be a problem, mandate or not.

[Old and In the Way]

12. I'm spending $1400/mo for private health ins.

And it's always a struggle getting them to pay claims. If everyone just stopped paying private healthcare ins, there'd be no other option but Single payer.