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Old 07-13-2017, 11:29 AM   #6237
nfotiu
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Virginia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ernie View Post
Senate unveils the next incarnation of the Health bill. It may include the Cruz amendment which seems to solidify:

1) an expensive/non-existent lane for sick people and pre-existing conditions
2) a "normal" lane for people with steady jobs and benefits
3) a cheap but useless health policy lanes for those that feel they don't really need healthcare
4) the existing lane for people who can't afford anything

At some point a good chunk of the people in the third lane become people in the first lane or the fourth lane.
The one rational argument against Obamacare is that it put a lot of the burden on the middle class who didn't have insurance through their jobs. It forced them to buy more health insurance than they wanted so they would balance out the risk pool. This is the group that makes too much to qualify for subsidies, but were perfectly fine having high deductible catastrophic health insurance. I don't necessarily agree 100% with that argument, but I do think it is at least a legitimate point. If you'd rather take the chances with a cheap, high deductible plan, and can afford the deductibles if you have to, then I can see people wanting that to be an option.

I don't really feel comfortable supporting a Cruz idea, but if the plan is to keep Medicaid expansion as it was, to keep the subsidized plans costing about the same as they do, and offering options on the health care exchange for less coverage, then that is not a terrible idea. I don't know that this plan will necessarily end up looking that though.

The tricky part is going to be able to figure out how to keep the subsidized plans costing the same and offering the same while taking some of the healthy people out of the risk pool. But if it means that burden is shared by the broader tax base vs the much narrower middle class/no insurance through work plan than that is probably a good thing.

I get the points you are making, but I haven't seen anything that Obamacare's stipulation for pre-existing conditions is going away. And I don't think 3) is useless if you are comfortable with a cheap, catastrophic only plan. I am sure it will be set up in a way that you can move to higher coverage at open enrollment periods if you start to think you will need greater coverage.
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