Xequecal wrote:
"you don't have to buy insurance, but the hospital still has to treat you if you get sick" is absurdly broken and is the reason health care costs go up by more than 10% a year.
I think obesity is a lot more of a factor then the "I've got the sniffles I'm going to the ER" crowd. Or that the current government subsudized insurances undercut the doctors actual costs- which of course leads to overbilling by the doctor in order to stay open. In short there are so many factors that combine to the current state of healthcare in the US, a government run option will always fail unless the government were to control almost everything to do with healthcare.
The other option of course is for the federal government to get out of the way, and allow individual States to deal with their populations as the citizens of that state see fit. I would hope that option would allow cross state competition. I mean there are so many examples of insurance working for the consumer- I can't see why the Democrats would try to pound this square peg in such a round hole.
I'd hope that the whole Act is struck down, as the mandate was non severable from the rest of the act, and as an overreach of federal power. What I really think will happen is that the mandate will be struck, the Court will give them time to "fix" the act to bring it into compliance. Which I also think is the best election year scenerio for the Republicans- because costs will HAVE to rise for insurance companies in order to be compliant.
I think the whole AFA was a gambit by Obama. I think he was hoping that there was going to be clamoring for single payer, and this act was intentionally left lacking in order to disrupt the current system enough to make that leap. Unfortunatly (or fortunatly) things didn't fall into place, and there was just too much resistance.
I mean hell, they lost Ted Kennedys seat to a Republican who campagined on being a vote against Obamacare.