Warning: Exposure to ObamaCare can lead to convulsions and levitating canines.
It's not very popular, because it's fairly invasive and sounds draconian. The arguments for requiring people to have health insurance is that when you ban denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions, people will simply go around un-insured until they get diabeetus (as Wilford Brimley would put it). Then and only then will they sign up for health insurance.
I wonder if that isn't a miscalculation based on economic theory rather than psychology.
Economic theory posits that we always make the most rational decisions possible that maximize the benefits to ourselves. We always buy the product that is the perfect value of cost and quality for our needs. In that sense Economic Man would not waste money on health insurance, when He would not need it.
But I think that's a simplistic reading of human nature. I mean does anyone really make decisions like that? It assumes that people won't want health insurance for the sake of having, you know, insurance. I don't imagine I'm going to get the "diabeetus" anytime soon, but I like going to the doctor and not having to pay through the nose for it. Co-pays are a hassle, paying the full cost is more so.
Life insurance might be a better comparison. I have no plans to die soon, unless Palin gets elected, but I have life insurance, because...who knows?
Life insurance is not a logical product; you're betting on your own demise. But I also don't mind putting aside a few bucks a month to insure that my family doesn't lose the house if my head explodes from accidental exposure to Fox News.
If ACA makes health insurance more affordable, more efficient and more accessible - and what we're seeing from the tax credits for small business is very encouraging and working better than expected - then I think we'll see major decreases in the uninsured. Probably unmarried people in their late 20s and early 30s will go without voluntarily, but I imagine most people will take advantage of health insurance if given the option.
So, if the GOP kills the mandate, I think ACA will still survive and improve our national health delivery.
Not that THAT'S very hard.
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