Cynics on Why to Support the Health Care Bill

Quiet Declarations has a good blog post on why to support the Senate health care bill, basically outlining three rationales. One, if you want to pass any bill to create a new entitlement, because government programs are permanent, and even though the bill sucks, it will never go away, and flaws can be fixed later. Two, if all you want is to declare “victory” for Obama and Congressional Democrats. Third, if you believe a laundry list of assertions about health care – many of which are nonsensical and some of which contradict each other (the implication is that no one falls into this category).

Another interesting argument was posted to Facebook by a former CF intern, making the case that under the new reforms, anyone with insurance should drop their coverage immediately. Granted, you will have to pay the 2% income tax penalty, but for most people, that is less than the cost of insurance.

Isn’t that risky? Today, yes, but under the new law, you can’t be denied coverage, so it makes sense to wait until you get sick or into an accident.

Won’t insurers sock you with higher premiums if you wait until you get sick? Again, the new law would prevent that, forcing community rating, or flat pricing of premiums.

But wait a minute, if large numbers of people drop insurance, won’t that drive up the premiums for those with insurance, and result in more folks dropping coverage, and still higher prices? Indeed, that is the argument Marty Feldstein makes, and is the experience in states like New York.

But who really cares about the details? This is historic legislation.