November 08, 2009
Comparison of all the major Health Insurance Reform proposals - This kind of backgrounder is the most valuable thing a newspaper should provide, yet is all too rare. I'd rather read an 'importancepaper' than a 'newspaper', if only they'd publish one.
NC: I know that you're just pointing out a specific example, but the main point of the mandate is to prevent a free-rider-type problem. If you have a system that gurantees you insurance if you desire to purchase it, you need to prevent people from purchasing insurance only when they are extrmeely sick. By making everyone pay into the insurance system, you distribute the costs of health care broadly, and make it more affordable to insure people with cancer and AIDS.
If you're an individual person, you want mandates only if the costs of premiums go down with the health care bill. In particular, I would argue you want a public option that can be bought by everyone and has as broad an availibility as possible (though people do disagree on this). If the overall bill does not reduce premiums, then the insurance companies will have basically sold a lot more insurance to people, pocketed the increased profits, at the expense of the people who either choose not to have insurance, or who cannot afford it currently.
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Because I have insurance, I feel like the outcome of health insurance reform isn't going to affect me too much, and haven't been paying attention to this topic at all. Whether my belief is correct or (most likely) not, I don't understand a lot of the reasoning for certain points.
For example, in the tab about mandates: I can understand why each lobby may be for or against a mandate, but I am not sure why an average person would be for or against a mandate. Why does congress think it is in the people's best interest for a mandate? Is it because they agree with the insurance companies that there will be a premium hike to compensate for the people who only purchase it when they need it?
While this bit of background information is good to read, I'm so unaware that I don't understand the reasoning and arguments for and against the different points. Has anyone found a good, unbiased site discussing the pros and cons of each element in the proposal?
posted by NanoCindy at 04:51PM CST on November 09