[ExI] Warren Buffett is worried too and thinks Republicans are "asinine"

[spike]

From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Omar Rahman
.

 

>.Spike, elsewhere you have stated that it's not in the "track team's"
interest to sign up for healthcare because they are healthy. This is not
true because:

 

>.1) sooner or later the 'track team' will turn into the 'zombies' you talk
of

>.2) they will need a functioning health care system to take care of them
which can only be built and maintained through constant effort

>.3) I was on the track team (literally) and we're not (all) short sighted
jocks, we generally 'grow up' and hopefully grow (very) old and live
responsible lives

 

>.Regards,

 

>.Omar Rahman

 

 

 

Hi Omar, agree to all.  I was on the literal cross country team, which is
vaguely related to track I suppose, in that both involve running.  We used
to say the track guys were either immune to boredom or were addicted to
having their groupies along the track cheering them on, for their sport
really offered little on the way of variety of scenery, while ours offered
us nothing for people cheering along the course.  There were very few even
at the end.  Oh well.

 

Regarding your contention that the track team will eventually turn into
zombies, you are absolutely correct.  What I see wrong with our current
proposed system is that it overcharges the track team, meaning they will not
come.  They will wait until they do turn into zombies before they opt in.
This has two distinct disadvantages: they will become accustomed to living
without health insurance, for it is unclear when they make the transition
from track star to zombie; probably whenever the opt-out cost exceeds the
insurance bill, or first time they get some serious illness.  

 

Secondly it will cause them to lose their fear of the IRS, since that is the
once-respected organization placed in charge of collecting the opt-out fees.
The problem is, the law was declared a tax after the fact, against the
explicit declaration of the president who claimed it was not a tax.  The
language of the law is not easily adaptable to a tax; it isn't adaptable at
all.  It doesn't explicitly give the IRS the same authority to collect as it
has for other taxes.  As if to make matters worse, the language of the ACA
makes it inherently difficult to modify, by design.  

 

When we start from scratch or begin actual health care reform, I suggest we
call on the insurance companies to set the price structure, rather than
dictate it to them.  They know what it really costs; we do not.

 

If we want the track team to come, in their best interest as well as ours,
we must first ditch the absurdity of setting price structures.  This is an
example of a government which presumes to have the expertise to set pricing
of risk categories better than the CEO of a health insurance company, when
they haven't even demonstrated expertise in designing a website.  We end up
with absurdities such as a factor of three maximum between the lowest cost
category and the highest.  Three?  Ask any insurance company CEO, they will
likely say that number needs to be at least 10.  Three is a joke.  There is
no possible way those in the lowest cost category will pay that.  

 

The system cannot even deal with the very biggest known health risk:
smoking.  The 65 year old smoker pays thrice the rate of the 25 year old
non-smoker, when their risk cost differs by a factor of nearly 9.  The 25
year old track star is not going to willingly pay triple so that the puffing
65 yr old zombie can pay a third of his risk cost.  We cannot make them: the
tax penalty is meaningless if the IRS cannot collect it.  

 

But now we have a new problem: the IRS has two different levels of
authority.  To collect income taxes, their authority is iron-fisted
totalitarian absolute authority without accountability.  To collect opt-out
taxes, their authority is to wheedle, cajole and beg.  A prole can be
imprisoned for failing to pay income taxes, but not for failing to buy
health insurance, according to the Supreme Court decision.  A private
business cannot be padlocked for failure to pay opt-out penalties.
Conclusion: the track team will not come; the system will collapse without
them.  The zombies will come; the system will collapse with them.
Meanwhile, insurance policy cancellation notices are flying like the leaves
of autumn.  We have taken a broken system and broke it worse than it was
before.

 

spike

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