ACA Effectiveness on Uninsured

[*wildcats forever*]

(01-06-2016, 02:54 PM)fredtoast Wrote: The issue is that insurance is not needed because we have hospitals that do not refuse service.

So why make all the hospitals paying customers pick up the tab for people who could afford insurance  but don't buy it because they still know they will be treated.

God forbid one of those uninsured gets something like MRSA, where the only effective medication costs something like $4500 for a two week prescription. Hospitals aren't doling out pharmaceuticals like that to UI ER patients. An extreme example maybe, but with rising drug costs, the cost of a couple of monthly prescriptions go a long way toward buying insurance that is good enough to offset that kind of out-of-pocket expense. 

Requiring all to have insurance is one of the first steps toward cost containment (if that is at all possible w/o a complete government takeover). It's just that there is a long road ahead to make any meaningful stride toward affordability for all.