Senators are realizing they would be voting for a unicorn
Jul 18, 2017, 6:22 AM
(File, AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
(File, AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
A Senate health care vote won’t happen, and there’s a reason for that.
More senators are realizing they would be voting for a unicorn. There is no such thing as a health care system that covers everybody without requiring everybody to buy in and without raising anybody’s tax.
It would be like passing a law to repeal gravity and wondering why apples still drop, or never charging your cellphone and wondering why no one messages you anymore.
They haven’t done a thing to lower health care costs –- they’re just arguing over who should pay. And the uncertainty is only driving premiums higher.
But Dave, you say, we can easily lower premiums by letting people buy cheaper, stripped-down policies. Which is true. So I asked Julie Rovner, who covers health care for Kaiser Health News, what would happen when someone with a stripped-down policy gets a bill for an illness, like cancer, that isn’t covered.
“Well, the hospital eats it. Although in the case of chemo therapy people actually do die for not being able to afford coverage.”
In other words, if buy a policy that doesn’t cover, for example, extended chemo therapy, the hospital is within its legal rights to kick you out and let you die.
No one supporting repeal wants to say that. But when they refuse to say that health is a right, that is what they’re saying.
While we await a decision, a lot of individual policy holders are about to see average premiums jump by around 30 percent. To put that figure in perspective, every time someone utters the phrase “repeal and replace,” 30 percent represents the average nose growth.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
