Quote:The biggest issue for me is that it's a LAW and tied into the IRS. Neither of those should be part of any healthcare system.


We have insurance through my husband's employer and my preexisting condition of anxiety and depression was an issue. I had to be self pay for a year before insurance would cover my shrink visits. I guess if you're not part of the ACA exchange you can still be penalized. Either that or the provision is the insurance company couldn't deny coverage overall but they were not going to cover it for the first year.

The reason for that is because people without health care tend to use the ER as their primary medical facility rather than a doctors office and then they don't pay the hospital...

 

This is an old article, but it illustrates WHY the government decided to tie uninsured to the IRS...They are trying to recover billions of dollars paid to hospitals for non insured people


<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;"> 

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;">"Last year, MedStar Washington reported delivering $107.2 million in care for which it was not reimbursed. Nationwide, the total amount of uncompensated care provided to the uninsured reached an estimated $56 billion in 2008, according to one study.



<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;">Those costs have prompted financially strapped hospitals to rely on a complex system of shifting costs. Most of the burden falls on taxpayers, with the government providing tens of billions of dollars annually to help hospitals care for the uninsured. Privately insured Americans also pay a price as insurers raise premiums to reflect higher charges from hospitals."

<p style="color:rgb(68,68,68);font-size:16px;">http://www.pantagraph.com/news/national/...f887a.html

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