A friend:
“I’m surprised you got by with paying under $700 in NY in the first place. I had to buy insurance with my [southern state] address while I lived in NY, or I couldn’t afford it at all.
Gotta love regulation.
“This is a ‘blind spot’ for Republicans, it seems. Conservatives don’t like government controlled heath care, but the current pile of conflicting interests means that no one knows what ANYTHING really costs (and try getting your physician to tell you up front what the visit is going to cost), and all the numbers are fungible. The only people who pay list price are the uninsured, and their financial backers (taxpayers).
“We need real insurance reform, and we can start by de-linking it from employment. They’d get a lot of steam from the small business class, which, according to all reports, employs the
largest number of people in the country.”
[Derb] Can’t really talk about this, I’m still in shock. But yes, anyone who says right now that our entire health-care financing system is nuts to the fourth power, won’t be getting any argument from me. And from a social-libertarian point of view, the thing is pernicious, as it strongly discourages individuality & enterprise. As is the case with the tax code, the message you get loud and clear is that the govt. wants us all to be employees so we can be tax-farmed more easily. Strike out on your own, step off that corporate hamster-wheel, and you get socked with sudden 81 percent hikes in your health-care premiums. Hoo-ee.