Young, single, healthy, and sufferer from Obamacare sticker shock
Megan McArdle analyzes how premiums might shake down for the young, unattached Californian who makes more than $25,000 or $30,000 a year.
I said my piece in the matter a couple of days ago, here. But I want to add a few things in response to McArdle’s points. The first is that any young and healthy person who didn’t already understand what Obamacare was likely to mean for their premiums probably didn’t understand much about health insurance—but I would imagine that most young and healthy people don’t understand much about health insurance. Another is (as I mentioned in my previous piece) that each state will be different, and that Obamacare, if it lasts, will be morphing and changing (perhaps into single payer, which may have been the original intent).
McArdle opines on whether young and healthy people will select the option of paying for insurance versus paying the penalty for not buying it (oops, excuse me; the tax for not buying it, says Justice Roberts):
The individual mandate is now the law of the land, and Americans are pretty law abiding. Also, people clearly like having health insurance; they opt for more generous coverage even when it’s not cost effective, and unions will give up almost anything else to protect health benefits. This may be enough to get the healthy youngsters joining the exchange.
But then again, it may not. And if they don’t, that’s going to be a really big problem.
I submit that they won’t. Why would they? The penalty will be relatively small compared to the premiums, and a person faces no impediment to buying health insurance because of pre-existing conditions if he/she should have the misfortune to fall ill. The only problem that person would face is if there’s an emergency which causes them to incur large immediate expenses, and young people with a halfway decent income and yet without insurance are already choosing to take that risk. The insurance they are now refusing to get would cost less for them at present than under Obamacare, as McArdle points out, so why on earth would they buy it when Obamacare kicks in? Just to help out the rest of us? Some particularly altruistic souls might, but I doubt their numbers would be great enough to avoid Obamacare’s potential “really big problem.”
Young people who supported Obama thought the rich were going to pick up the tab for everything. Now they are getting what they voted for good and hard.
Another transfer from the young and indebted to the older and relatively well off.
And these are just the nominal costs of the bill.
Stop talking medical economics — and start talking voting blocs.
As in Honduras, the Wan figures that he’s created a massive bloc of life long Democrat zombies: Big Medicine.
(Chicago on the Potomac will have them voting long after they’re dead.)
Democrats need Big Medicine because they just killed off the UAW.
Better to rule (and ruin) in a Hell economy than stand in opposition has the tide lifts all boats.
If they can target each constituent group of retards that make up the Obama voting block with a “what’s in it for me” angle, they can make it work. They just need to focus their efforts on these people in the same way the did to get their votes in the first place.
For example: explain to the twenty-something generation of eco-dunces that Obamacare is medicine for global warming and healing the sick planet. It will be a moral imperative for them.
For the tekkies – advertise a free Ipad and other goodies with the purchase of Obamacare. Offer upgrades to the newer devices every year or two for another $299.
For the gender confused – there’s an Obamacare sex change — monthly payments is the way to go here. I’m sure it’s got to be a bargain compared with what one costs now. (not that I would know…)
The only problem that person would face is if there’s an emergency which causes them to incur large immediate expenses, and young people with a halfway decent income and yet without insurance are already choosing to take that risk.
for those looking to invest..
i would say, get out of things like extreme sports, skiing, bicycles, skateboards, and so on.
a whole lot of “youth culture” is about to disappear
It’s all about ‘moving the medical ball’ toward single-payer, government run, healthcare.
Any and all setbacks will be spun toward that goal.
}}} The individual mandate is now the law of the land, and Americans are pretty law abiding.
Americans are pretty law abiding when they feel the law is JUST.
When they disagree with it, you have Prohibition and Drug Laws.
We’re a rebellious bunch. It’s in the original gene pool.
Oh, and speed laws that are set by fiat rather than proper engineering-safety considerations. We thumb our noses pretty regularly at those, too.
I see this as a grand error on the part of the pass it to know what’s in it crowd. It may take 1-3 years before the under 40 crowd realize they are chained to bag of sinking unfunded liabilities, but that day will come. They will revolt. They may be naive now, but they will be breathing fire once the mordida sinks its teeth to the bone.
One underlying problem is that US healthcare costs double as percentage of GDP than it does in the rest of the developed world. That is, 16-17% of GDP in the US. Australia 8.5%, Switzerland 11+% on the high side. They are trying to build a new entitlement on top of a sinkhole. I too would be surprised if young people buy insurance as opposed to the tax in droves. I think they will buy cars and smartphones instead.Sometimes you can modify a bit and make the system work better. I am not at all sure this law is reformable. I think it may well ruin the Democratic party brand for some time to come because it is a set up for disaster. I don’t think either that the electorate is about to install a Democratic majority in the House precisely because they put the Republicans into power in the House precisely because of the excesses of Obamacare.
Health and medicine are a limited resource. IN order for humanity to sustain themselves on these limited resources, quotas and consumption laws must be in place. That way, the resource can be husbanded and reserved for the Ruling Class. Everyone else will just have to get some cutbacks…
The elixir of immortality was never for peasants nor uneducated serfs.
“… and that Obamacare, if it lasts, will be morphing and changing (perhaps into single payer, which may have been the original intent).”
Not much of a surprise considering that behind those “locked doors” the Dems were expressly designing it that way, designating much power to federal govt. officials who will determine and decree the many details of the legislation. Harry Reid then called for a vote before any single person could read and then possibly know what was actually in the 2,000+ page law. And that’s not even mentioning the dubious manipulation with voting rules to insure passage.
I was outraged at just about every step of the process, but who knew that the corruption involved in the writing and passage of this law was a mere precursor; but a slight precursor to the way in which this Administration operates, with zero moral compass, and an overriding belief that the end justifies the means.
Just the last 3 weeks has been jaw-dropping in the sheer degree of corruption, yet Obama and his Administration proceed with barely a hiccup.
To me, it’s as frightening as it is incredible, but it is the huge number of apathetic or disinterested Americans along with an almost across-the-board cooperation of the MSM that is this Administration’s greatest enabler.
Nothing has happened recently that I wasn’t prepared for in the last half decade.
It is of little value, for the nation cannot be brought to war even if a single person is prepared. Everyone else must be mentally ready and prepared too.