"We" is us, paying for our own health insurance. Spread the risk and it comes out cheaper.
I already have health insurance. I like my health insurance. So don't put me in that boat.
We are covering more people. Those people aren't paying. That means someone(me) has to pay for them.
Even the Congressional Budget committee has come back and said it's too expensive; essentially that we wouldn't be saving money.
Your post is an example of the inertia that got us here, and why we spend far more for far less in this country. Right, let's not mess with the system because it's real REAL good.
No, by all means mess with the system. But they're barking up the wrong tree for it. If you really want to decrease costs try this on for size:
-Pass a law that increases the insurance companies liability for recissions; essentially make it so they have to find any pre-existing conditions in the first 6 months of coverage. After that, it's on them.
-Open up competition by letting people get insurance in states other than the one they currently reside in.
-Set up a government operated backend for charging insurance providers. The companies have the option to get on a big backend list of providers that the hospitals can charge their insurance through. This makes it easier for new insurance companies to enter into the market(rather than negotiating with individual hospitals, it's a "one stop shop" to get accepted all over the country). This also means if I'm getting bent over by Blue Cross Michigan, I can easily switch to a provider in Tennesee or whatever and still have coverage in the same places.
-(this one is optional) Set up a law that forces United States based pharma companies to export drugs to other 1st world countries at the same rate they'd sell them at in the states. One of the reasons care is so much more expensive here is because we're subsidizing the research the rest of the world doesn't pay for.
The current pharma companies are too heavily invested in US politics to back out of the states.
Edit: All that said, you still didn't make a case for inflation at all. I assume you're abandoning that point?
Re-Edit: Responding to your other post.
As opposed to the current system where hospitals treat those without insurance, and it gets passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher costs. Frankly, getting some basic preventative care in for those without insurance could potentially lead to lower costs due to lower hospitalization rates since issues would be diagnosed or cured earlier in the process. And seeing a doctor is much cheaper than being hospitalized.
Yeah but the next time the country flips out due to some random swine/avian flu, or SARS, you know damn well we're going to end up paying to vaccinate the whole fucking country for something that likely wouldn't have done shit. After all, it's "preventative", amirite?
Really, insurance to begin with is a bit of a socialist scheme - If you're perfectly healthy and live a healthy lifestyle, your insurance premiums end up going to pay for some obese person's heart surgery (perhaps multiple times over) because they love McDonalds and hate exercise. Let's just abolish the system! Down with socialism!
It's not a socialist scheme. Risk distribution is not socialist as long as private enterprise is involved. Competition is good.
Beyond that, I don't want the government to have any vested interest in what I do to my own fucking body. One of the big smoking/marijuana/drinking arguments is that it's not their business. Those arguments all go bye-bye the minute a public plan becomes reality.
