Surprise, American's Want a Free Lunch

The AP wrote an article about how a majority of American's don't like ObamaCare and the main reason is the requirement that everybody buy health insurance.  Even if they want to have health insurance, they dislike the idea of forcing someone to buy it.  However, when asked if they think every drive should have car insurance, they say yes because they know the uninsured driver might hit them.

But continuing with the Poll, it also turns out that American's want to keep the ability of people with pre-existing conditions to buy affordable health insurance.  Well, anyone with an ounce of intelligence, knows that opens up the health insurance companies to the real potential cost of healthy people waiting until they are sick to buy health insurance.  And if that happens, the insurance companies can no longer afford to price health insurance at affordable prices.

I know this because this what NY State had before ObamaCare.  An individual policy cost $1,500 a month because there was no requirement for people to buy health insurance and there was no ability of the health insurance company to turn away people with pre-existing condition.  $1,500 a month is $18,000 a year for a single person and $36,000 for a married couple.  Add some more on for the kid or two and you have priced health insurance in the individual market out of the reach of anyone earning less than $100,000 or even more perhaps.  Remember, all these payments are made with after-tax $.

So when the GOP tells voters you can keep your requirement of insurance availability for pre-existing conditions, but we can do away with the requirement that everyone have health insurance, they are not telling the truth.  And, in fact, they are making it harder for themselves to come up with anything that is viable as a replacement for Heritage Foundation/RomneyCare/ObamaCare.

What they are doing is pandering to the American voter's unending desire and belief that they can have a free lunch.  This is what Bush II did when he passed Medicare Pharmacy Coverage without paying for it, when he cut taxes and started 2 wars without paying for them, and when he cut funding for regulators and we got rampant fraud in the housing finance market and a near depression when it collapse.  The fiscally conservative GOP is no better than the Democrats when it comes to free lunch pandering; but at least the Democrats try to pay for it with revenues.

Both Democrats and Republicans need to be telling voters that there is no free lunch.  One way or another, the economics of everything have to work at all times.

Link to AP Story Summary on Politico