Automatic Payroll Deduction For Health Insurance Premiums
I’ll preface this post by saying that Hillary Clinton is not my choice for America’s next president. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like some of her ideas. I just read an article that described her plans for enforcement of her proposal to make health insurance mandatory for all Americans. Garnishing wages of workers who can afford health insurance but refuse to buy it sounds good to me. I am very sympathetic towards people who genuinely make very little money and struggle to make ends meet. But those people would get premium subsidies for health insurance under the universal coverage reforms, and in some cases would get their policies for free. But I have little patience for people who live in a 2500 square foot house and drive a two-year-old car and claim that they cannot afford health insurance or don’t want to pay for it. Especially when they choose to have children and continue to go without health insurance.
If you have a heart attack at the park while you’re playing frisbee with your dog, the bystanders are not going to root around to find your insurance card before calling 911. Once you wake up in the hospital with massive medical bills, that’s when the lack of health insurance will become an issue. And if you declare bankruptcy and skip out on the bill, you’re contributing to the upward spiral of medical costs being pushed off on health insurance companies and people with health insurance.
We must either set up a single-payer system that covers everyone, or expand the current combination of private and public health insurance to cover everyone. Choosing to not have health insurance coverage is irresponsible and has an impact on the whole health care system, not just on the person who is uninsured.
The government already garnishes wages. Medicare, Social Security, state and local taxes - they all come out before we get paid. There isn’t an option to pay or not pay when it comes to the things that we’ve determined benefit our society as a whole. Since having an entirely insured population would unarguably be an overall benefit to society, I support Clinton’s proposal to automatically enroll people in health insurance plans, and to payroll deduct premiums if necessary.
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So now you want to pass judgment on people who live in a comfortable home and drive a newer car. And you want to take away a basic freedom - the right to refuse health insurance or health care, for that matter. Instead you want to rob the rich to pay the poor - aka the redistribution of wealth. That is not what America is about.
It is an interesting question. I don’t think that people should be required to buy health insurance. But I also don’t think anybody is making the decision to turn down health care when they get seriously ill if they don’t have coverage. Bankruptcy is a much better fate than death.
You make a lot of good points in your blog though forHealth.
A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM WILL SHUT DOWN SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES AND FORCE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE INTO THE STREETS WITH NO JOBS TO SUPPORT THEIR FAMILIES. With that in mind, why banish hundreds of businesses across that country that are contributing to our economy? Instead, adjust the current system, regulate the way hospitals spend rather than regulate the companies that pay the bills. Why should health insurance companies pay hundreds of dollars for mistakes made by hospitals and doctors? Why do hospitals charge hundreds of dollars to the insurance companies for a procedure that costs pennies? I realize time is money, but most of these charges are ridiculously overpriced. Get real, universal healthcare will not fix anything.
I am frankly exhausted with paying the insane insurance premiums and all of the costs insurance doesn’t pay that I need to try to keep my eyesight. But since I own my own home, does that make me a bad person if I simply can’t pay for all of it? The irony is that, if I can’t pay for all of this myself, I will go blind and then on disability, and then the government will be paying my way.
Please be clear that insurance and health care are two different things.
Mandated insurance makes everyone pay but does not guarantee health care. That system merely supports the health insurance industry. It is favored by lawmakers because they are elected by deep pockets such as those you will find in this industry.l
Single-payer is health care not health insurance. It’s cheaper, it is humane and it leads to lower infant mortality rates and longer lives. This is in large part because people go to the doctor instead of avoiding it because they are petrified of the costs.
Anonymous - We very much agree that a single payer health care system is much better than mandated health insurance. I, personally, don’t like the idea of mandated health insurance at all. I think it is the only politically feasible idea legislators have been able to come up with to fix the system and it also has the side effect of growing an industry that already has a lot of power over Congress.