Every fat slob with diabetes or pre-diabetes pays the same as me. Aids patients pay the same as me.
What idiot thought that would be a good idea?
Seriously, fuck those aids patients. I'm all for adjusting rates based on lifestyle choices like already happens with smoking, but to me its just shitty to say "well I'm blessed with good health so the hell with those that aren't." There's a lot one can do to improve their heath, but there's also a lot of genetic or just shit happens stuff out there. I'm completely willing to pay more despite my health to not bankrupt those with chronic or acute expensive conditions.
Yeah, it is just good fortune I suppose that I do not have Aids. Could happen to anybody, right?
I just shake my head at some of these posts.
I do like one part of your post, though, as it actually addressed what I wrote about the ACA. You wrote, "I'm all for adjusting rates based on lifestyle choice . . ." and that change alone would make the ACA a lot easier to live with.
The truth is that my insurance for my family, if I were to purchase comparable insurance to what I had before the ACA, is more than 5 times as expensive. Even the most rabid fan of the ACA has to recognize some injustice in this fact.
Yes, my premiums would have increased anyway. They almost always did by small amounts. But more than 500%???
But, no, I am not willing to increase my burden by 500% to cover all of these people surrounding me who are harming their own health daily. Three quarters of men are overweight or obese. That is not a genetic condition. It is just what people do, kind of like spending all of their money. The average woman in the US is heavier than the average man was in 1960. 40% of women are obese (not overweight, obese) while saying things like "real women have curves." The culture accepts and encourages this, and the effects on health, both for the woman and her kids, are negative.
The one change to the ACA that should be made is adjusting costs based on risk.
That includes looking at pre-existing conditions. There is a MAJOR difference between somebody who has carried coverage for years and then suffers an expensive health condition as compared to somebody who does not, suffers a health condition, and then shows up at the next enrollment window and cannot be turned away. It's like buying car insurance after a huge wreck and expecting the car insurance company to pay to fix your car and all the judgments for personal injury damages against you from the occupants of the other car. That scenario just does not make sense, even if you would be happy to have your car insurance go up to pay for it.