What’s going on with health care these days? Here’s a story about a Congressman who took some heat for being less than supportive when it comes to the new healthcare law. What I find very interesting is that he supports ending discrimination against pre-existing conditions, but is opposed to Obamacare. As many people have pointed out, eliminating “pre-existing conditions” + community rating = individual mandates = Obamacare. You can’t have the first two without mandates, and that’s Obamacare in a nutshell. There’s no other way around it.
Another interesting bit of news, if unsurprising, is that most people have no idea how health insurance works. I got 3 out of 4 questions right, missing one, and I consider myself to be fairly knowledgeable about health insurance. Even aside from the ACA, if most people have no idea how health insurance works and they are limited to what their employers provide, economics tells us that this information asymmetry is not going to favor the consumer. Imagine if restaurant bills had copays, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximums!
I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more stories as we approach October 1st.