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Re:Affordable Care by mikeash on Friday January 13, 2017 @03:04PM (#13394235)
If you change your mind due to coming down with some condition, then you won't be able to upgrade your policy or pick up a secondary one, because that will be a preexisting condition.

So, one of a few things will happen. You may forego treatment and recover, in which case great. You may forego treatment and remain ill, meaning we all lose out due to the loss of a productive member of society. (Or, worse, you hurt a bunch of people.) You may seek treatment and be able to afford it, in which case great. Or you may seek treatment and be unable to afford it, meaning the rest of us get to pay for it for you.

That last one in particular is why we like to force people to have insurance. It's basically the same as forcing you to have liability insurance for your car. You can end up costing others a bunch of money, so we want to make sure you're able to pay it back.

Decisions have consequences. So long as the consequences remain confined to the person making the decision, I don't care much. But once they start impacting others, there's trouble.

Re:Affordable Care by virmundi on Friday January 13, 2017 @03:17PM (#13394334)
By that logic everyone should have the cadillac plans since they cover the most things. Where do we draw the line at required?
Re:Affordable Care by yardie on Friday January 13, 2017 @05:25PM (#13395316)
I've volunteered at hospitals when I was a teenager. The guys with the Cadillac plans got the same medical treatment as everyone else but they had a single bed penthouse suite closer to a hotel in accouterments than a hospital, a larger meal selection, insuite TV and telephone.

You do a disservice by calling everything you don't agree with cadillac coverage. Clearly you've never had it.

Re:Affordable Care by mikeash on Friday January 13, 2017 @04:50PM (#13395013)
The line would be stuff you need rather than just want, and which can be expensive enough to bankrupt you.