g5000
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2011
- 127,175
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The argument in favor of the health insurance mandate in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a.k.a. “ObamaCare”, says that everyone uses the health care system sooner or later, and that those who willfully don’t have insurance when they eventually get sick will cost all of us money.
I will show how this is a shell game.
Shell # 1: The real reason the ACA has the mandate is to offset the cost of another provision which requires health insurance companies to insure people with “pre-existing conditions”. This linkage is only brought up when it is convenient. It is not convenient when trying to paint the willfully uninsured as a bunch of hypothetical future burdens on society. But the willfully uninsured actually are a cash cow. Their healthy bodies will be forced to pay premiums to even out the risk pool and share the real burden of paying for those who have pre-existing conditions.
So don’t let this linkage between the two be hidden by Shell #1.
Shell #2: The ACA has subsidies in in it. A family of four that earns up to $92,000, and a single person who earns up to $44,680, will have their health insurance subsidized.
That is FOUR TIMES THE POVERTY LEVEL.
Nearly half of all Americans will be subsidized by the taxpayers for their health insurance.
Yeah. Half. You heard that right. The median household income is $51,914.
Half may be a conservative estimate.
The argument that the uninsured are costing taxpayers money today is completely obliterated by the fact the taxpayers will be paying for health insurance for likely at least half of America.
And you can be DAMN SURE the subsidies will be a political football forevermore as the Democrats unceasingly work to increase them every election cycle to buy votes.
So don’t let the “the uninsured are costing us money under the status quo” argument be Shell #2.
Shell #3: “Roll out the cancer lady!” ObamaCare is portrayed as the only solution. We are presented with the scenario of choosing between the status quo or ObamaCare. This is known in logic as a fallacy of the excluded middle, and betrays the common liberal way of thinking which goes like this:
1. The government must do something.
2. This is something.
3. The government must do this.
To garner support for their illogic, the Left does not hesitate to use another logical fallacy known as the appeal to emotion. They will roll out a sympathetic figure to show us there is really only ONE choice. This shameless and evil exploitation of the sick and injured in order to acquire something free for themselves is the third shell.
Don’t let the cancer lady be Shell #3.
I will show how this is a shell game.
Shell # 1: The real reason the ACA has the mandate is to offset the cost of another provision which requires health insurance companies to insure people with “pre-existing conditions”. This linkage is only brought up when it is convenient. It is not convenient when trying to paint the willfully uninsured as a bunch of hypothetical future burdens on society. But the willfully uninsured actually are a cash cow. Their healthy bodies will be forced to pay premiums to even out the risk pool and share the real burden of paying for those who have pre-existing conditions.
So don’t let this linkage between the two be hidden by Shell #1.
Shell #2: The ACA has subsidies in in it. A family of four that earns up to $92,000, and a single person who earns up to $44,680, will have their health insurance subsidized.
That is FOUR TIMES THE POVERTY LEVEL.
Nearly half of all Americans will be subsidized by the taxpayers for their health insurance.
Yeah. Half. You heard that right. The median household income is $51,914.
Half may be a conservative estimate.
The argument that the uninsured are costing taxpayers money today is completely obliterated by the fact the taxpayers will be paying for health insurance for likely at least half of America.
And you can be DAMN SURE the subsidies will be a political football forevermore as the Democrats unceasingly work to increase them every election cycle to buy votes.
So don’t let the “the uninsured are costing us money under the status quo” argument be Shell #2.
Shell #3: “Roll out the cancer lady!” ObamaCare is portrayed as the only solution. We are presented with the scenario of choosing between the status quo or ObamaCare. This is known in logic as a fallacy of the excluded middle, and betrays the common liberal way of thinking which goes like this:
1. The government must do something.
2. This is something.
3. The government must do this.
To garner support for their illogic, the Left does not hesitate to use another logical fallacy known as the appeal to emotion. They will roll out a sympathetic figure to show us there is really only ONE choice. This shameless and evil exploitation of the sick and injured in order to acquire something free for themselves is the third shell.
Don’t let the cancer lady be Shell #3.
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