I am certain if I go outside I shall see pigs flying, because, for the second time this month, I actually agree with something said by ultra-liberal blogger Ezra Klein.
In reality, it’s the best deal in the bill: A cynical consumer would be smart to pay the modest penalty rather than pay thousands of dollars a year for insurance. In the current system, that’s a bad idea because insurers won’t let them buy insurance if they get sick later. In the reformed system, there’s no consequence for that behavior. You could pay the penalty for five years and then buy insurance the day you felt a lump.
Of course, Klein then has to go ruin it by saying "Luckily, consumers aren’t usually that cynical". Because, well, consumers actually are. And this is exactly the point we made back in December.
It would be in the interests of most rational Americans to not be insured, and as soon as they contract a serious illness, however, they would instantly sign up for insurance, and the law would force them to be covered. And have all their expenses paid for, even though they did not contribute anything to the insurance plan prior to contracting the illness. Then, as soon as their illness is cured, they would once again drop the insurance, having paid for only a fraction of the potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars treatment would cost.
And what would this mean? A death-spiral for insurance companies, as more and more people do the rational thing and don’t purchase insurance until they get sick. Leading to increased costs, and more and more people being uninsured. Which is the plan of the left all along. To destroy the free market, and impose government run healthcare on all.
Which is why Obamacare must be repealed and replaced in its entirety.