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

spike spike66 at att.net
Sat Nov 2 20:47:18 UTC 2013


 

 

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



 

>.The ACA is a classic case of 'slippery slope' actually. You see the
generation that is under 26 right now IS GOING TO HAVE HEALTH CARE from
their parents unless those parents are either irresponsible jerks or rabid
ideologues.

 

.Or they can't afford these prices either, ja.  If the parents have those
good corporation-supplied health plans, agreed, the 26-and-under crowd can
likely get on that.  But plenty of parents are being moved to 30 hour weeks,
which means they lose their insurance and a chunk of their paychecks, so
Junior is on his own, 26 or otherwise.  They can be neither irresponsible
nor ideological; they designed their lives for 40 hrs pay, now they have 30
and a pile of new bills.  Health insurance is the first thing to go
overboard, since a lot of the rest of it is unyielding: car payments, house
payments, food, etc.

 

 

>. Once a person is 26, they are probably going to be mature enough to
understand that, like it or not, 'something bad is going to happen to them
sometime' and pony up for health care.

 

OK well you are more optimistic than I am.  I conjecture that plenty of them
will look at the deal and just decide to wait until something bad happens,
then buy the insurance, after being told they couldn't be turned away for
pre-existing conditions.

 

 

 

>. For them it isn't going to be about 'getting' health care, they will be
thinking of the context of 'losing' the health care they had until age 26.
Once that shift takes place in the general population it's game over.


You are more optimistic than I am regarding human nature.  My guess is that
it might work on a few of them, but in general, these considerations will be
insufficient to keep them digging out the old checkbook and sending in
payments regularly.  I predict failure.

 

 

 

>.If the Supreme court has declared it a tax then it's a tax and therefore
the IRS can collect it. Where is the problem?

 

Not really.  It was declared a tax after the fact.  The law itself doesn't
have the usual legal infrastructure needed for taxation.  The ACA is
inherently impossible to modify.





>.Asking private insurance companies to set the prices is a bit like asking
the wolves what the acceptable loss of sheep is for the shepherd.

 

Omar, they aren't going to lose money.  This I can assure you.

 

 

>.The solution is simple: single payer. It addresses the broken supply and
demand curve that I mentioned in my post.

 

You already know what that requires: a constitutional amendment.  After the
rollout.gov debacle and the way the Republicans and Tea Partiers were
treated, good luck with that, see ya.

 

>.I would avoid the 'pricing of risk categories' altogether.

 

You would, they won't.

 

>. Everyone pays the same tax, everyone gets the same care. If you want to
smoke $100/pack cigarettes that's your choice. A pack of cigarettes needs to
reflect it's true societal cost. Generally do what you want, but we're going
to tax it enough so that we can clean up the mess later. No free riders!...

 

Ja, and the young and healthy will sign on for that?  I think not sir.

 

 

>.Spike, you were (are?) an aerospace engineer? And you worked on some
contracts for the government? When did you notice your competence rising and
falling? Did it happen the instant the government contract was signed and/or
completed? If so, we have solved the problem of FTL signalling! Now we just
need

a pairs of government employees in every home and stacks of contract for
them to sign and breach/fulfil. I didn't realise you were so pro-big
government Spike but the logic is irrefutable! ;)

 

Dealing with government customers is always a special challenge.  Screwing
up the specifications is a common problem.

 

More later,

 

spike

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