18 August 2009

the easy way out

more problems with the health care regulations

I noticed a minor quibble (with the plan, not her criticism) immediately. For an individual mandate to work, they have to penalize people who don't comply, typically with a fine. If the fine isn't very high and I was forced to buy a particular kind of insurance (one with stuff in it I personally don't want, ie, it's not an HSA with a high deductible plan), I might just pay the fine and not bother getting health insurance. It's not like they will 1) take away my access to care or coverage or 2) take away other rights or life by doing so. When you don't get car insurance, they can take away your car or at least your driving privileges, but there's not much of a threat here because of medical ethics, externality problems (caused by neighbours letting their neighbours die instead of helping care for them even by just taking them to the hospital) and the fact that I am probably not a free rider case being a working class poor young person without a major health condition (yet).

But in the case of car insurance, they establish very low minimums for coverage and don't worry too much about what kind you get as long as you have something. They do worry about such things with health insurance. For example, states like New York don't even have HSAs because there are so many mandates on coverage crammed in.

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