Here’s how Trump’s tax law is raising health insurance premiums

[*Nately120*]

(07-27-2018, 05:32 PM)PhilHos Wrote: I understand all that. But, requiring everyone to purchase health insurance or face punishment is antithetical to freedom. 

And there's a difference between health and auto insurance in that only those who purchase a vehicle have to buy auto insurance.  AND, the only time you get in trouble for ont having auto insurance is when you get caught - which usually happens when you need it.

I'm all for lowering the costs of health care - heck, I'll even consider government-run or single payer health care if done right - but not at the expense of American's freedoms.

Not to sound like a conspiracy nut, but the notion that people should drive less and this country should be built in a manner that facilitates public transportation is dismissed as a liberal pipe-dream as well as an attack on big oil.  Plus, all those American auto workers are going to lose jobs if we do stuff like walk or take the train to work.  Personally, I've gone years of my life without a car but it was when I lived in NYC and Chicago.  That's not something that carries over to many other places, though.  Our country is designed around the idea that anyone working age can legally and realistically drive a personal vehicle, vehicles which routinely lead to heavenly bills in property and medical damage.

As for healthcare, again we are seeing the price of a civilized society.  We don't want to let people die in the streets, but at the same time we just can't get enough of making it A-OK to subsist off of a diet of trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, and various pollutions.  We don't prevent, we treat with profit in mind.


So many things contribute to the issue at hand.  I suppose we'd get some sort of perverse satisfaction at watching someone who isn't a marathon-running vegan attempt to pay cash for heart surgery before he drops dead, but we supposedly live in a civilized society where we survive by looking out for each other.  But unless you are fairly well-off and then die suddenly without visiting a hospital I assume everyone is going to get to a point where the costs of trying to stay alive will outweigh his/her bank account.

Personally, I have health and auto insurance I've never used.  I've been paying other people's bills all these years, but meh...who knows what tomorrow will bring.  I can see myself being full of cancer eventually.