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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Omar Rahman<br><br></span><o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>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<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>…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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span> 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<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span> 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.<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><br><span style='color:#1F497D'>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.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>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?<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><br><br><o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>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<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Omar, they aren’t going to lose money. This I can assure you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>The solution is simple: single payer. It addresses the broken supply and demand curve that I mentioned in my post<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>I would avoid the 'pricing of risk categories' altogether<span style='color:#1F497D'>…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>You would, they won’t.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span> 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!<span style='color:#1F497D'>...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Ja, and the young and healthy will sign on for that? I think not sir.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>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<o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal>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! ;)<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Dealing with government customers is always a special challenge. Screwing up the specifications is a common problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>More later,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>