Originally Posted by Adraco

It's not really 30 million profitable customers we're talking about! We're talking of society's losers here. The already ill, uneducated, the poor, the unemployed and so on. These are the people with the worst general health. They have much higher risk of early death, permanent illnesses and health related problems than the average population.

If the above metnioned people were profitable customers, they wouldn't be denied coverage today!!! If they were profitable, the insurance industry would come up with a way to accept them and how to finance it. These are the customers no one want, because they cost more than what they bring in. What the government is trying to do, is raising taxes, but doing it via the backdoor, I will explain.

By making it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage, almost anyone can/will get it, even those with pre exisitng conditions and those who costs a lot to treat. Those are people who the government have to pay for today, with emergency treatments to keep them alive. By making them the problem of the insurance industry, the government can take them off their own balance sheet and private insurance companies will have to adjust their premiums for all their customers to adjust for the increased costs/risks of their new customers.

The government could have raised the tax (very impopular move) to provide overage themselves, but instead making this move people will end up with the same or more money out of their pocket, only that it's not labaled as "tax" which will make many people more comfortable paying the same amount, as long as it's not called "tax".

Most likely, this is not a gain of the insurance industry. Soon enough, you will see that top companies move offshore and thereby avoid having to accept any customer. It will then keep providing insurance for the rich and well educated, who both live longer and stay healthier, thus making the company more money. No one is interested in insuring those people, that's why they had to pass a bill to make it illegal to deny them. The insurance companies sure enough never asked for this.