Name:   copperline - Subject:   That's hilarious and absurd Date:   6/3/2015 1:58:22 PM

Well, we are still waiting on the GOP to propose a plan, aren't we?   It is beginning to look like the only thing you guys can agree on is that we need to (somehow) go back to the way things were before.    Pre-existing condition exclusions, cherry picked subscriber groups, minimum regulation of the insurance industry, and large segments of the US population unable to afford or gain access to health care.

No, the new subscribers to the ACA are not coming from Medicaid/Medicare roles... many are people who were previously excluded from getting any insurance by the rules created by for-profit corporations who had no real interest in the state of our national healthcare.   It is clear to reasonable people that we would not want national health care policy written by for-profit insurers anymore than we would benefit from foreign policy being directed by Halliburton.  

It has always amused me that the conservative, leave-private-business-alone lobby would oppose the ACA.   After all, without the ACA, private businesses (hospitals, medical groups, etc) are forced to bear the financial burden of caring for the uninsured.   In this country, hospitals are legally required to deliver medical treatment regardless of ability to pay.   Even minimum levels of ER and hospital based care is quite expensive, but if the hospital refuses to provide this ... they are exposed to grave legal consequences.   So, they treat the patient to the point that they can be discharged, and the uncollectable bill becomes bad debt.   Patients leave, and since they were uninsured, they don't have outpatient medical followup care to sustain their health and minimize additional healthcare costs.   THAT was a huge contributor to the escalating healthcare costs in this country.

Now that doesn't sound like a fair way to treat these corporations and never did.   So the unspoken, contradictory and hypocritical message from Conservatives:  You would rather force these corporations to pay the bill for the uninsured citizenry regardless of the impact on their operation.   That, in other words, is a heavy burden highly distructive to their business.   Don't take my word for it, ask any hospital exec whether they would want Grady Hospital closed and the indigent load absorbed among the remaining facilities.   Ask the administrators who had to close small hospitals because they could not attract a decent mix of insured patients to somewhat offset the unpaid indigent bills.  

And no, we are not seeing people signup for insurance on the day before they need it.    THAT is what would happen if you took away the requirement that all of us have to have medical insurance... for our personal benefit, for our family, and to a very real extent... for the good of the nation.