Matt Kibbe sits down with Kara Jones, vice president of FREOPP, to discuss practical solutions to America’s ongoing health care crisis. Republicans have basically given up on repealing Obamacare, and the Democratic majority in Congress has no interest in revisiting the issue anyway. So we need to find solutions that both parties can agree on and that actually have a chance of passing the legislative process. Jones and her organization are devoted to finding market-based fixes that will not alienate Democrats but will also not cave to their disastrous notions of a single payer system or Medicare for All.
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[…] by Matt Kibbe […]
I’m seeing some flaws in your thinking. When talking about elderly people not paying for pregnancy coverage, or young people not paying for ‘Cadillac’ plans, you’re foregoing the idea that all costs are spread around, in favor of the idea that the elderly have more money saved up (not always true) or that young people are generally healthier (not always true). Many elderly people have very little savings because of the career they chose, the region they live in, or simply the class they were born into. Similarly, many young people have more health problems than the elderly due to diseases they have through no fault of their own.
I suppose you could break these into sub-groups, but you seem to be implying that those with more health problems have incurred those of their own accord and should pay more, and that elderly people have more money to spend.
What I find somewhat disturbing is the idea that healthier people deserve to have more of their income as disposable due to sheer dumb luck of not having chronic health conditions. How does luck make one more deserving of more money in-pocket?
To clarify, I was one of these young and healthy individuals, until one day at age 33 my body decided that my pancreas was a foreign invader, and now due to outrageous healthcare costs in America, I have to spend roughly $5,000 more annually out of pocket for basic survival. My doctors literally told me that the cause was ‘bad luck’ (no known cause). How is it that someone with better luck ‘deserves’ more cash in-hand than I do?
Conservatives often complain about the liberal sense of entitlement, but frankly what I’m hearing here is the exact same thing. I certainly don’t want OUR government running the healthcare system, but if we’re going to talk about coverage and cost-sharing, let’s not presume that those with higher costs are deserving of less… particularly when most of those higher costs are through no fault of their own.