05-04-2011, 04:51 PM
michaelb wrote:
I posted a link to that article in the thread below.
Oops, sorry, I missed that. (I've been traveling the last several days and I was perusing some threads too quickly I guess.)
While I think the fundamental point is well taken and true, it is also important to point out that as far as I can tell, having read all versions of this proposal (100s of pages and hours of time I would like back), there isn't actually any detail about how they would implement this "idea". To call it a "plan" is to grossly overstate what it says.
It does seem true that the only known way to implement this "idea" would be to impose all sorts of similar components to what is in the ACA, like a requirement for seniors to buy into something. Otherwise, healthy seniors would just wait to buy in until the last possible moment (medicare already includes significant penalty provisions for not enrolling when initially eligible).
Yeah, if you are going to try to cover seniors (or other people private insurers would generally rather not cover) but still want to have the coverage be private coverage, then some kind of mandate is going to be necessary (or else you get the opt-in only when needed thing you mentioned, which is not sustainable). If you care about sick people enough to want the government to help make sure they are covered, but don't want mandatory coverage, then you pretty much have to go with a public option to compete with private insurers or skip private insurers altogether and go single payer.