Reasons for or against Health Care Reform

[gomer_tree]

The following thread has the poll that asks where it is you find yourself on the map of feelings about the Health Care Reform bill: http://www.actuarialoutpost.com/actu...d.php?t=188505


I want to offer two additional polls:

If you voted for any of the "opposed" options, please check ALL that apply for reasons that you oppose it:

If you voted for any of the "in favor of" options, please check ALL that apply for reasons that you support it:



I can think of a number of reasons that would go into the list, but I would like the list to be complete. Please list any and all reasons that you can think would be a legitimate poll option. By listing it, you are not making an argument for it yourself nor do you have to personally believe it. It can be as simple as "someone at work said they were for it because..."

I will try to make it a serious and even-handed poll, so I will discard/revise sarcastic suggestions.



At the end of the day, I will post two separate polls based on the responses here. I will ask that anyone answering these polls first vote in the other one first, and that you only vote in one or the other.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[The Drunken Actuary]

Poll? WTF gomer.

[The Drunken Actuary]

[The Drunken Actuary]

Come on man, you're killing us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[The Drunken Actuary]

[Woodrow]

Originally Posted by gomer_tree

Please list any and all reasons that you can think would be a legitimate poll option.
....
At the end of the day, I will post two separate polls based on the responses here.

As fun as it is watching TDA flip out, he may want to reread this.

[Woodrow]

For:
1.The current system is broken, a change which is not obviously worse is worth a try.

2.We have social safety nets for other aspects of our lives. I could lose my job and insurance and find myself diagnosed with a serious illness. I want insurance against this situation.

[The Drunken Actuary]

Originally Posted by Woodrow

As fun as it is watching TDA flip out, he may want to reread this.

I was just giving him crap because no one responded to his last poll for 12 minutes....

[JustASix]

I guess this works here too.


The Good:

• ~30M more people have health insurance. This is a very good thing. this is 99% of the positive here.
• Some of them will pay something for it, although not many and not much.
• Cost reforms. Okay, this bill doesn't do much, if anything, to lower costs but there is a chance that more insured will lead to more preventative care and more efficient care overall. I also think there is a pretty low chance that this makes healthcare more expensive (in aggregate, not just for me).

The Bad:

• COST - 30M health insurance policies will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100B a year. Taxpayers will be covering most of this. This is 99% of the bad of this bill.
• Regulation on insurance prices - Regulation is bad in general (imo). This regulation is particularly bad from an actuarial perspective because it does not allow premiums to be actuarially sound.
• Pre-existing conditions - I know this is part of regulation but it deserves it's own bullet. The penalty is not strong enough to prevent very intelligent and healthy people from going without insurance until they get sick.
• Regulation on businesses - There are some businesses that will get hit fairly hard by this but in the end it will be the employees of those businesses that will feel the pain (imo).

[whisper]

Opposed:

The bill addresses health insurance changes. Its questionable that the health insurance market is broken and needs substantial change which can only be achieved on the Federal level.

The bill ignores health care changes. Changing who or how things get paid doesn't alter the cost component - which is the problem.