The Neosecularist

Healthcare Insurance Ought To Include Pre-Existing Conditions; Government Ought To Butt In, Then Butt Out – And Stay Out!

The cost of treating someone with an advanced illness is a tremendous burden on one’s family as well as on one’s finances.  Compounding the problem, most Americans cannot afford to buy their own health insurance, and that needs to change.  No American ought to be forced to go without healthcare because they legitimately cannot afford it.  And no American ought to be forced to endure the pain associating with illness that goes untreated because they have been denied health insurance due either to an inability to pay for it, or because of a pre-existing condition – or both.

Doesn’t it make more sense to treat an illness as soon as possible, both for the benefit of the individual who needs to be treated, and because the sooner an illness can be treated (which includes bringing a condition under manageable control) the less overall cost there is in treating the illness when it becomes more advanced and needs more specialized medicine, more tests, more doctor and hospital visits?  Why do health insurers discriminate so viciously against Americans with pre-existing conditions and what can government do to reverse that without taking over health insurance altogether, and at the same time lower the cost of healthcare for ALL Americans, including those with pre-existing health conditions?

The United States Supreme Court is in the middle of hearing arguments over The Affordable Care Act – Obamacare, in which the government is arguing it can mandate and force all Americans to buy health insurance.  The Supreme Court will overturn Obamacare on this issue, because it (and we all know it) is unconstitutional for government to force Americans to purchase anything they don’t want to, including health care.  Part of Obamacare also provides that pre-existing conditions must be covered, and that no American can be discriminated against who has a pre-existing health condition.  Once Obamacare is reversed, Americans are back to the drawing board with regards to healthcare, and millions of Americans who now have pre-existing health conditions, who thought they would finally be covered with the health care they needed to help them, will find themselves out of luck.

Health insurance agencies will not cover people with pre-existing conditions because the cost of the premiums would have to be raised in order not to lose money.  Remember, healthcare institutions are FOR PROFIT agencies.  Just as bad is relying on government to provide healthcare to all Americans, including coverage for pre-existing conditions, because in order to do that the cost for such an expensive undertaking would have enormous consequences – very dire, very negative for all Americans.  Government is a NOT FOR PROFIT body, but if it runs health care – it ain’t doing it for free.

1.  Taxes would have to be raised on everyone to pay for government-run healthcare.  So the idea that healthcare would be free flies in the face of reality.  How much taxes would be raised is hard to tell, but as usually happens, it is small at first, and then is progressively raised over time.  In any event, we would all feel it in our wallets and pocketbooks.

2.  Taxing the rich, and rich corporations either exclusively or at a larger rates might sound appealing to Americans who are already struggling to make ends meet, and who would have a harder time with an added healthcare tax.  However, as we all know, when businesses are taxed, regardless of the size of that business, that tax is passed down to the consumer, so Americans still get stuck with paying taxes for healthcare even if government does not directly tax them for it.

3.  However, when government burdens business with taxes, the smaller the business is the more harm there will be, as small businesses cannot stretch their budgets to the same degree bigger businesses can.  This causes small business to lay off employees, creating more unemployment, more overall anxiety, more tension and more call from Americans for government to step in and help even more.

4.  It also creates greater hardships for small businesses who need a certain amount of employees to keep their businesses running, without which they cannot stay in business.  A catch 22 for small business is thus in play, who have tax and debt obligations to pay, or be fined and forced to pay even more.  So, lay off employees to pay the tax and debt, but risk losing their business anyway because with fewer employees, they cannot meet their contractual obligations, resulting in slowing and dramatically decreasing their cash flow, their credit and credibility in the business community.

5.  Now we are back at square one again, and neither have we solved anything, nor have we learned anything from the mistakes we repeatedly make over and over again.  Namely – government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem. And the more we grant power to government to resolve our problems, the more problems are created.

6.  In the process of trying to ensure all Americans with health insurance, including those Americans with pre-existing conditions, mandated through government, and paid for by all taxpayers, directly and indirectly, we have caused more businesses to close their door, or lay off more of their employees, stop hiring, stop giving out raises and other bonuses, and we have brought our economy, which is struggling to crawl at the pace of a caterpillar, to a screeching halt.  And those Americans that needed health insurance, especially those Americans with pre-existing conditions, are again thrown under the bus.

The dilemma we are faced with is that ALL Americans need health insurance, and ALL Americans need affordable health insurance, and that includes, and ought to include, those Americans with pre-existing conditions.  How do we get to that point, where ALL Americans are covered with affordable health insurance, including those Americans with pre-existing health conditions:

•  without turning healthcare over to government;

•  without government mandating ALL Americans be insured, or face steep fines for not having health insurance;

•  without risking the quality of healthcare because the cost to treat ALL Americans, including those Americans with pre-existing health conditions, is now more expensive to health insurers rather than the other way around;

•  without having the cost of healthcare rise dramatically and unexpectedly because the cost to insurers has become too much to bear, returning us back to the drawing board and having to look for more solutions?

It seems as though, if government would just butt in momentarily and remove the vast amount of restrictions, regulations and tax obligations, the bloated bureaucracy and other obstacles on both the healthcare industry itself and on investors and risk takers, all of which combined, are right now preventing them from either investing altogether in the health industry, or as heavily as they otherwise would but for the regulations and taxes, that would go a long way in helping solve the problem of how to attain quality, affordable healthcare for ALL Americans, including those Americans with pre-existing health conditions.  And just as quickly as government butts in, it ought to butt back out.

Two things are for certain.  One – Obamacare will be overturned.  Two – ALL Americans still need affordable healthcare insurance, including those Americans with pre-existing health conditions.

The only uncertainty is – how will we resolve this problem, how quickly can we resolve this problem, without wasting time about who pays for what, who ought to pay for it, who ought to pay more for it and why, and how to get around the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Obamacare and turn healthcare over to government anyway?

If we are determined to have all Americans insured with quality and affordable healthcare, including those Americans with pre-existing health conditions – who ought not be left out of the process – isn’t the main obstacle in making that happen that group of Americans who insist this cannot be done expect by government mandate?

We know government can’t make that happen without raising taxes on every American, and on every American business.  And we know that still won’t be enough money to cover the cost of ALL Americans, including and especially those Americans with pre-existing conditions.  We know government will have to print more money, incur more debt and create higher inflation, thereby weakening the dollar and making the problem of affordable healthcare, and everything else in America, much, much worse.

Isn’t it time we gave capitalism and the free market system a try?  What are we afraid of losing if we do?

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