Hacker News Reader

Comment by commentzorro | Hacker News Reader

If you allow the young and healthy to purchase plans at one third the price then the old and ill are going to have to pay three or more times more. How are they supposed to afford that after a lifetime of working just above minimum wage?

Without the young paying in during the early years they're going to have annual premiums of $40-50,000 as they approach their 60s.

View on HN

Might seem backwards, but the goal here would be to turn patients back into customers. Right now, there is no visibility for the individual into prices for services. Without it there is no competition at all to find common, realistic prices for services.

Lower prices should reduce premiums for everyone, since insurance companies have strict margins per the ACA. Lower premiums should increase those that are covered by insurance, hopefully.

Nothing wrong with turning patients into customers. Lower prices will only happen for the young and healthy. Higher prices will be the only possible future for the old and those with pre-existing conditions. The insurance companies are not going to cover a particular class at a loss. They'll just walk away, as they should.

The ACA is going away. Please don't use it as a crutch.

Lower premiums mean higher deductables. We see that now and we saw it before the ACA. Healthcare costs $18,000 per person this year regardless of how you divide the premium and deductable. Take away the young and the price goes up for everyone else. And this is with a cap in place by the ACA. Only going to get worse with the regulations removed.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com