An Individual Mandate for Healthcare Coverage

Analysts, industry experts, insurance companies, congressional Democrats, and the Obama administration all feel that the only way to make healthcare reform a viable option is to include an individual coverage mandate. This means that Americans who do not have or are not offered health insurance through their employer will be forced to purchase individual coverage or face a penalty levied by the IRS. Unfortunately this is true, the type of healthcare reform that is currently making its way through our legislature would depend on convincing uninsured individuals that they needed health insurance despite the cost. While the government subsidies will easily convince the segment of the uninsured that currently cannot afford health insurance, it is the millions of Americans who already qualify for government subsidized healthcare (Medicaid) and choose not to participate or those that can afford insurance but choose not to purchase it that will take some convincing. The only way to convince these latter individuals is to impose a financial penalty on them for choosing not to participate.

The insurance industry has also clamored for the inclusion of an individual mandate because, they argue, if healthcare reform requires carriers to cover individuals despite pre-existing conditions then it will encourage individuals to go without coverage until they need it and then buy it. This practice goes against the very basis of health insurance which requires premiums from healthy individuals to help offset the costs of unhealthy individuals. The only way to lower health insurance costs while in-turn guaranteeing coverage for every American is to mix risk in the overall insurance pool. Unfortunately this means that healthy Americans who choose to go without health insurance will be forced to participate in the pool for the benefit of the unhealthy. While congressional Democrats and the Obama administration have gone to great lengths to convince voters that this mandate and accompanying penalty is not a tax, it is, by the very definition of the word, a tax.

Despite shifting phrases from the administration, you can bet that any healthcare reform bill that passes this year will include an individual mandate. It will not affect those of us who already have coverage, but it will affect anyone who chooses to go without coverage for any period of time. The only interests that stand to gain from an individual mandate are politicians and insurance companies. The more Americans that politicians can force onto healthcare, the better their statistics will be come next election cycle. And an individual mandate represents potential windfall profits for insurance companies. For those of us that it actually affects, the taxpayers, its just one more burden.

Source

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31782553/ns/health-health_care/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072103410.html

http://www.aishealth.com/Bnow/hbd102209.html