Re:Two Years Working at Dropbox
by paulddraper on Saturday December 07, 2019 @11:50AM
(#21731189)
> think of the mandate as a tax
It's not a tax though. It's finding, choosing, paying for a particular insurance plan for their employees.
Thus, insurance being tied to employment.
Re:Two Years Working at Dropbox
by maxerickson on Saturday December 07, 2019 @12:01PM
(#21731243)
Okay, I didn't really address that. I would argue that it didn't change the situation that much, because the situation prior to the ACA was that being in a group plan (employer coverage) was the best way for people with significant medical needs to maintain insurance.
For many people, "A good job" has long been one that came with health coverage (and given the expense of insurance, this continues to be the case).
It would be excellent for us to have a situation where people bought their health insurance individually. I think requiring more employers to provide insurance probably was an incremental step in that direction, as counter intuitive as it is, because it addressed the situation that existed in an achievable way.
It's fine to not like it, but it was probably one of the less disruptive options for collecting more health care dollars.
As far as I can figure, there's really only 2 paths forward for the US system. Dump more money into it or train lots more providers. People don't seem to think we are short on doctors, but the market looks sort of exactly supply constrained, where everyone is busy and prices go up up up. Of course, because we are stupid, some of the most significant healthcare regulations...limit supply.