The Health Care Reform Address Thread

[Schneed10]

What are they doing?: Demanding that everyone buy at least basic health coverage.

Why?: There's a federal law that says hospitals can't turn people away from the emergency room, whether you have insurance or not. So people without insurance go when they get sick. Most of them never pay the hospital bill. Guess who pays that bill? Those of us who are covered have higher insurance premiums to pick up the uninsured's slack. If everyone has to buy coverage, then ER visits will actually be paid for by those who go to the ER.

How will they do it? Pretty simple, pass a law. You must buy coverage. How they enforce it will be interesting to see, but that's doable through the threat of fines, etc.

How will it help? When everyone is covered, their insurance actually will pay for their ER visits. Your premiums should stop going up as fast. And it's fair after all, as long as ERs have to care for people, then someone has to pay for it. If you want to play, you have to pay, it's only fair. There will still be people who choose to break the law and go uninsured, but when they end up in the emergency room for who knows what, they'll end up with a fine for being uncovered.