There are three things to say here. Two of them are new things, one is not an aha moment. I'll leave that for last.
The first Aha Moment came this morning as I was cruising the web with all my tools and feelers on moderate. It came in the form of the following video. The aha was the simple honest statement that you wouldn't think to hear at all, which is that the Republicans have several bills on health care reform but they are not being paid any mind as the majority is painting the Right as heartless bastards.
Medicare goes bankrupt in 2017. That used to seem like a long time away. It's not. Here are Republicans for sustainability.--
The second mind blower followed a radio show I listened to this evening. "Insurance reform" is a bad way to go about helping Americans stay well. It turns on the pre-existing condition matter. If the government requires insurance companies to insure risky individuals, they essentially force the hand of the business. It no longer becomes an insurance business. An insurance business, the brains of it, is managing risk. You pay a premium against a risk - the amount of the premium depends upon how much risk the insurers assign you as an individual. The insurance company has several main tools with which to balance. The level of risk, the amount of benefit, the amount of premium, the insured population. When the government forces the hand of insurers with regard to the insured population and the amount of benefit for the purposes of funding universal health care, they are turning insurance companies into something other than what they are. The insurer can no longer manage risk - they essentially put their assets up as collateral against the general illness of the nation.
There will be lawsuits. Big lawsuits. When insurers are taken out of the risk management business by government mandates, they will be reconstituted or go broke. I'd like insurers to be sustained. How about you?
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The third idea, the old one is that the way to survive is to be rich. Nobody is rich enough to really survive what this ball of confusion is likely to produce in terms of economic catastrophe - but you don't have to be faster than the bear... I feel sorry for my fellow Americans. I will explain on the downside, as I did with the financial crisis. People don't think things can get worse. They will.
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