Are you people insane?
We're about to provide 35 million+ new customers to insurance companies. They will profit from this. Taxpayer money will even fund a lot of these premiums. "Here's a bunch of tax dollars, but we're going to take some of them back." It doesn't make any sense.
The average customer is profitable for an insurance company. That's how insurance works. The unlucky are subsidized by the lucky. More customers = more profit.
A couple of things here.
First off is that just using your 35 million figure you frame it as all of them landing in one big insurance pool where all the premiums go to one place.
That isn`t how it would be,they will be spread out over hundreds or maybe thousands of companies.
Suddenly the increase in premiums collected against the liabilities of claims paid per company isn`t as lucrative sounding.
Next is the issue that you assume providing subsidized coverage will not encourage use of it.
Right now those of us with insurance are discouraged from using it needlessly by copays and deductibles as well as rates reflecting risk.
Are you going to tell me that a government subsidized policy because a person is too poor to purchase one will still have such checks and balances?
I can hear the outcry now about how the plan the government buys for me wants me to pay 30 dollars that I don`t have as a copay.
It will not work that way and everyone knows it...it will be complete and virtually free coverage to those under a certain income level.
Once again the liability of usage grows greatly.
Now there is the issue of human nature.
I am employed and part of that is a health insurance benefit that I pay a portion of.
How many employees and employers will opt out and selectively reduce income received or paid so one can qualify for a subsidized plan?
No one can answer that but the law of unintended consequences is seldom beneficial in my observation of things through life.
The mistake a liberal always makes is they don`t think things through based on observations of reality and history.
I don`t mean that as an insult either,simply a reflection here on your statements that presume you can radically alter the workings of this industry and the results will only be as you wish them to be despite all evidence showing the opposite will likely be the outcome.
That conclusion is based on the current government involved health care programs.
Medicare is a transfer program and is still going broke.
State plans that have been designed for low income or poor have bankrupted them and or the counties that have to support them.
Will there be a penalty for taking a sniffling child to an ER simply because it is more convenient then getting an appointment in a clinic or private practice?
Doubtful so why the presumption that will change by insuring everyone?
What will be needed as a reserve pool an insurance company has to hold to meet potential liabilities and where will that come from except for increasing rates until a balance is discovered between new customers and increased claims?
On and on it goes with hundreds of more questions that real life poses.
