Nobody questions the pre-existing conditions exclusion in Obamacare I or Obamacare II. “You have to keep insurance companies from excluding people based on preexisting conditions.” Nobody could disagree, right?
Senator Rand Paul nailed it in an interview I heard this morning. He said this is like telling people you don’t have to buy health insurance until you’re sick. If you wait until you’re sick, they’ll cover you anyway — since the government requires it.
What does this do to the self-responsible and forward-thinking people who made sure to have health insurance back in their 20s? Why should they have to pay all along while those who don’t purchase insurance get to have their tab picked up right away?
They call all this socialism in medicine “social justice.” But it really depends upon which social group you’re a member of. If you’re a member of the rational and self-responsible group, you’re always screwed. If you live moment-to-moment, always counting on someone else to take care of you when the time comes, even if your own negligence is largely to blame, then I suppose you get “justice.” At least if justice means getting whatever you want whenever you feel like it, at someone else’s expense, of course.
Imagine if car insurance worked this way. Imagine if the government passed a law telling auto insurance companies they must cover people whether they’ve already had a terrible car wreck or not. “No exclusion based on the preexisting condition of already having had a car wreck.” Just wait until you crash, buy auto insurance, and get it all paid for on the spot. What do you think this would do to the cost of premiums?
The problem isn’t just Obamacare and now Paul Ryan-care. The problem is government intervention in medicine and in the health insurance industry. The moment you tell an insurance company it must provide coverage for those who failed to buy insurance in the first place is the moment it’s no longer an insurance company.
It’s insanity, passing for “social justice” and reasonableness — only in the warped world of Washington DC.
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