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Originally Posted by Ian
Just curious, what's the fallback for health insurance. My main concern with the Medicare + no ACA is that insurance companies driven by actuaries and profit hunting (they are businesses after all) are either going to outright deny the aging population any sort of substantial coverage or charge an amount that drains whatever 401k + IRA + savings accounts we all have. All during years where serious illness with long term substantial costs are more likely. That scares me...
Social security I agree... it's money I pretty much have said I'll never see again.
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How about letting insurance policies actually be sold by businesses which compete on an open market. Let customers buy what plans they can afford. Let health care providers compete on an open market in which there is no guaranteed top dollar reimbursement for every procedure given to every patient. Prices could be far more reasonable if huge sums of money provided either by insurance companies or government were not automatically guaranteed to be available for any procedure and for every patient regardless of that patient's ability to pay.
This would also create a true competition in the medical supply system. With less money available to health care providers to buy equipment and supplies, businesses which want to compete in that market would have to lower the prices of their products.
Those who choose not to buy insurance can pay out of pocket. Prices would be more affordable because of the above. And for those who are truly needy, there can be government assistance, preferably by individual states.
For rare and vastly expensive care, catastrophic insurance policies can be purchased. Or, if states wished, there could be a small tax to cover such contingencies for their citizens.
As it has become, with mandated regulations and restrictions, we don't really have "insurance" in a private business sense. Especially with the ACA or with the desired government paid universal health care. Huge sums of money automatically available to health care providers guarantee huge prices for their services. The same, BTW, can be said for higher education. Every new investment by government in the education industry always results in higher tuition.
The free market has been becoming less and less free, and the regulated market has become more and more expensive. And when the Federal government finally steps in to fix the problem which mainly it has created, then total regulation will create total mediocrity. And the impression to those not paying attention will be that all is finally fair.