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A comment on Total Cost of Her Covid-19 Treatment: $34,927.43. Parent comment

Re:Total Cost of Her Covid-19 Treatment: $34,927.43 by alkonaut on Saturday March 21, 2020 @11:04AM (#22646968)
That’s like saying home insurance is a tax on people whose homes don’t burn down.

Isn’t the whole point of insurance to have everyone (sick and healthy) pay for the few?

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Re:Total Cost of Her Covid-19 Treatment: $34,927.43 by umvi on Saturday March 21, 2020 @11:17AM (#22647063)
Insurance implies you have a choice in the matter (i.e. it is optional), but in this case (Obama-era health insurance) it wasn't optional. So why not just call it a tax, which is what it really was?

To me it sounds very similar to social security tax - the young being forced to pay to subsidize the old.

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Re:Total Cost of Her Covid-19 Treatment: $34,927.43 by alkonaut on Saturday March 21, 2020 @11:55AM (#22647378)
The use of the term “insurance” is used for non-optional programs where the premiums are taxes. Perhaps not in the US though.
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