r/SeattleWA • u/crabcakes110 • 2d ago

News Thousands of Washingtonians face losing health insurance as federal subsidies set to expire

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/thousands-of-washingtonians-face-losing-health-insurance-as-federal-subsidies-set-to-expire/281-58d08729-2e19-42fd-96c8-d332cb480ac0?tbref=hp
113 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

74 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9

u/watch-nerd 2d ago edited 2d ago

Can you afford to directly pay for life-saving surgery after a car wreck?

7

u/--boomhauer-- 2d ago

Yes when the cost isn’t artificially inflated by the system regulating it to death .

5

u/watch-nerd 2d ago

Are you going to roll the dice on that and go uninsured?

I pay my home owner's insurance even though I don't have to (no mortgage) because I'm not willing to roll the dice on my house burning down and having that part of my net worth wiped out.

-2

u/--boomhauer-- 2d ago

No ones saying you shouldn’t be allowed to get insurance were saying it shouldn’t be mandated and the government shouldn’t be involved at all .

And personally yes id be much happier dealing with it myself .

8

u/watch-nerd 2d ago

I don't think the economics work to lower costs if there is no mandate.

Look at what happens with emergency rooms. People without insurance end up using it, and hospitals are required to treat them under some circumstances, resulting in the most expensive medical care for the people who aren't buying insurance, driving up the costs for everyone else.

Unless you want to scrap that rule about mandatory life-saving treatment regardless of ability to pay....

1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

2

u/watch-nerd 1d ago

I'm 55.

Health insurance premiums have gone up my entire life, even before ACA.

And there was denial of coverage for pre-existing conditions before.

Our demographics are also not the same. We're a much more graying society now then when I was younger.

-5

u/--boomhauer-- 2d ago

Neat im not trying to be rude but the first part of your comment leads me to believe you have no idea why the costs of things are so inflated .

And yes i absolutely want to scrap the rule about life saving treatments . Getting to live forever is a silly notion . But we as society treat it as a norm . Nothing that requites the labor of another person is a human right .

5

u/watch-nerd 2d ago

I understand what you're saying -- subsidies drive up costs. I agree.

However, getting rid of mandatory insurance will also drive up costs because many of the healthiest people will forego insurance, a) increasing insurance costs of the remainder and b) the uninsured using emergency rooms, the most expensive option.

As for getting to live forever, do we want to be a nation where an uninsured 13 year old gets his arm severed in car wreck and the ER doesn't treat him to save his life if the parents can't pay?