re: #630 Racer X

Well, lets take the specific (and very controversial) point we were discussing earlier: A national health insurance mandate.

This more than anything else (especially under the current bawlderized (sp) version) will put a TON of money into the insurance companies’ pockets.

So why is this being put in? The thing I”m gonna focus on emergency care. As of now, if an uninsured person has a health problem, they ignore it as long as they can, then go into the ER. Now compared to a normal clinic, or urgent care, or whatever, ER care is MASSIVELY expensive.

The reliance of the uninsured on ERs has 2 immediate effects I’d go into.
1) it murders the hospitals bottom lines, and makes all hospital care more expensive.
2) it slows down ER care terribly, and can hurt people who actually need emergency help.

Now people actually HAVING Insurance would help both of these, by keeping people out of ERs. Isn’t that a good thing to include, even though it helps the insurance companies?

(Yes I know that issue is more complex than that, but I’m hitting the main positives for ease)