Wal-Mart is the latest to curry favor with whoever by announcing that they favor an employer mandate for coverage.
While I understand Wal-Mart’s political position as everybody’s favorite whipping boy and their desire to at least appear to be a good employer (they actually ARE a good employer, but they’re buying into other people’s definition of good… and that’s bad. Does that even make sense?), they’re missing a whole lot of points.
First, an employer mandate without an individual mandate (with teeth) is a joke. It merely opens up the chance for unscrupulous people to “game the system.”
But first, let’s go back to the ranks of the “uninsured.” Right now, as many as one-third of the “uninsured” are eligible for health insurance where they work. They simply choose not to pay for coverage.
Yeah, that’s right. 16 to 17 million of those “uninsured” people you’ve been feeling sorry for aren’t worthy of your pity — they’re just cheapskates who aren’t willing to pay their own way.
Another 7 to 8 million likewise don’t deserve your pity. If Massachusetts’ experience is any indication, they’re too damn stupid to take advantage of FREE CARE.
Yup, 100,000 of the original 700,000 uninsureds in Massachusetts were eligible for FREE Medicaid… but they were either too stupid or too lazy to sign up.
And now that Massachusetts has a couple years’ experience, we’re learning some very interesting things. To wit:
Charlie Baker, CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in Massachusetts (America’s #1 Health Care Plan on the basis of quality measures) went back and looked at the people who have signed up for individual (non-group) coverage here in Massachusetts. Here’s what he found:
- Two years ago the individual and group markets were merged. Result? Healthcare costs went down by ~25% for individuals and up by ~2-3% for small groups. That was expected because groups would be subsidizing the less-healthy individual market.
- Part of the law in MA was that there’d be no pre-existing condition limits, so folks could get in even if they had an illness.
- To keep people from waiting until the actually had an illness to sign up (i.e., gaming the system), the MA law requires individuals to have coverage. That way, even the healthy individuals would pay into the pool and keep loss ratios reasonable.
- But the penalty for non-compliance is only about $900 per year, while premiums were much more… 5 to 15 times more, depending on your age and family status.
- Long story short, sleazeballs are gaming the system right and left.
- They wait until they have an illness
- Then they sign up and pay premiums until they’re cured
- They they opt out and pay the lousy $900 penalty.
Proof that this is happening?
- In the first year of the mandate, Harvard found that 40% of those signing up for individual coverage stayed with HPHC for less than five months.
- Moreover, the average individual of this type incurred claims of $2,400 — SIX TIMES WHAT HARVARD WOULD NORMALLY EXPECT.
Who’s paying for it? You are, Mr./Ms. business owner. You and all the individuals who are playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played.
Picture for a moment what will happen when this kind of bureaucratic insanity is forced on the entire country by the programs that the government are busily cooking up right now.
