US Supreme Court Upholds Affordable Health Care Act

[kandrathe]

FWIW, At the end of the day, I find it hard to believe that a bill that was overwhelmingly influenced by the Health Insurance Lobby has my best interests in mind.

It makes you wonder.

If procedures and coverage were both logically priced, then we wouldn't be having the "health care crisis" that we are now.

Do we have a "health care crisis" or do we have a "price of health insurance" crisis?

As much as I want to be a free-market capitalist, the free market doesn't work if there's no real competition.

Agreed. I think my question has always been; if the problem is the "price of health insurance", then what is the critical analysis of the factors contributing to higher prices? Some people go without this expense because of the price, which is too high when it's not being supplied by either an employer, or the government. And, the other side of the uninsured would be those individuals who have proven to be expensive to care for (i.e. preexisting conditions).

We can take it as a given that the industry is not in favor of any approach that would reduce the price by increasing the availability of care ( e.g. more hospitals, professionals, etc), because this would mean more competition and lower incomes.

The other factor has been the increase in technology, expressed as new drugs, new procedures, and devices. This, and the increasing needs of the boomer population has driven up the demand for health care. I think we can agree that while we can tamp down on incidence of unnecessary health care (and promote preventative care) that the trend of more demand for care is also a given.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying it, but I really see the issue as one of supply and demand. It's not an issue of who pays for it, other than in the minds of the forces backing "Big Government" or "Big Business". The issue to me is simply that we have more demand than supply.

Ultimately I believe both cost and quantity of care will be reduced by forcing more health care to be paid for by Medicare / Medicaid. Fewer providers will be be willing to provide services at the governments controlled price. Two markets have emerged. Those driven by the reduced price the government will pay, and those driven by the rising price of health insurance paid mostly by employers.

I have a hard time seeing the "for profit" health care industry faring well in the impending government designed "control of price" with a 10% expansion of people covered. So, we are going to try to force more people into Medicare, a program inadequately funded by Congress, and also try to make it more affordable. An average US married couple filing jointly ($89,000) will pay about $114,000 in Medicare taxes over their lifetime -- but would receive an average of $355,000 in Medicare benefits.

And, we are giving companies (with more than 50 employees) the choice to provide their employees $15,000 in health care insurance benefit, or face a $2000 fine tax. Other than the initial "Scrooge" effect, I think I see what the natural forces are here. Am I reading it correctly? More demand, less money, no change in supply.

Health care is an industry that is 18% of the US economy. All things being equal, if we reduce our spending on health care, doesn't that show up in our economy? Perhaps we'd be better off spending that money elsewhere too. I don't know.