Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
As pointed out in another thread, the most likely version of Obamacare requires insurance companies to sign people up even if they have a "pre-existing condition"... and the plan levies a relatively small fine on people who don't carry insurance.
So it makes clear economic sense for people to drop their health insurance and pay the fine, until they actually get sick or injured. Then they can sign up to have insurance companies pay for their medical care, paying the normal premiums, stay until the problem is remedied, and then drop the insurance again.
My question is:
How can the insurance companies survive when more and more of their "customers" do this?
A company is practically guaranteed under this plan, to get almost no premium payments from their "customers". And only then if they are simultaneously paying out much higher amounts for the medical care that EVERY customer needs. Customers who don't need medical care, have dropped their insurance (until the next sickness or injury). Even if the govt sends them money from the fines, it is a much smaller amount than ordinary premiums would be.
Any way you look at it, the cash flow is negative. This plan pretty much guarantees that insurance companies always pay out more than they take in.
How, exactly, will these companies survive economically?
When I ask this, I often hear snarls of "Oh, you're on the insurance companies' side, eh?"... especially when the snarler cannot answer the questions.
Is this the ultimate "revenge of the liberals"? Where angry leftists get to legally damage (or destroy?) insurance companies they imagine have somehow wronged them? Without having to prove to anyone they've actually been harmed?
So it makes clear economic sense for people to drop their health insurance and pay the fine, until they actually get sick or injured. Then they can sign up to have insurance companies pay for their medical care, paying the normal premiums, stay until the problem is remedied, and then drop the insurance again.
My question is:
How can the insurance companies survive when more and more of their "customers" do this?
A company is practically guaranteed under this plan, to get almost no premium payments from their "customers". And only then if they are simultaneously paying out much higher amounts for the medical care that EVERY customer needs. Customers who don't need medical care, have dropped their insurance (until the next sickness or injury). Even if the govt sends them money from the fines, it is a much smaller amount than ordinary premiums would be.
Any way you look at it, the cash flow is negative. This plan pretty much guarantees that insurance companies always pay out more than they take in.
How, exactly, will these companies survive economically?
When I ask this, I often hear snarls of "Oh, you're on the insurance companies' side, eh?"... especially when the snarler cannot answer the questions.
Is this the ultimate "revenge of the liberals"? Where angry leftists get to legally damage (or destroy?) insurance companies they imagine have somehow wronged them? Without having to prove to anyone they've actually been harmed?
