[umvi]

> In Germany you are required by law to have it.

Obama basically made this happen, but the net result was that all of healthy young adults (the kind that least needed insurance) were forced to start paying for insurance to subsidize the unhealthy older adults (or pay a penalty).

So basically it was just a disguised tax targeting the young and healthy.

[alkonaut]

That’s like saying home insurance is a tax on people whose homes don’t burn down.

Isn’t the whole point of insurance to have everyone (sick and healthy) pay for the few?

[umvi]

Insurance implies you have a choice in the matter (i.e. it is optional), but in this case (Obama-era health insurance) it wasn't optional. So why not just call it a tax, which is what it really was?

To me it sounds very similar to social security tax - the young being forced to pay to subsidize the old.

[alkonaut]

The use of the term “insurance” is used for non-optional programs where the premiums are taxes. Perhaps not in the US though.

[morelisp]

> the net result was that all of [low risk group] were forced to start paying for insurance to subsidize the [high risk group]

This is literally insurance.

Obama's plan failed because the public option was removed, employers and states refused to play along, and the Supreme Court undermined even the part you're complaining about. It was also not a great plan begin with, compared to European programs.

[leetcrew]

not really. most forms of insurance are not mandated by law and try to charge people something like the expected value of their claims over a certain period plus a profit margin. if health insurance were allowed to operate more like other kinds of insurance, healthy young people would pay a couple hundred bucks a year and old people would pay tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. an eighty year old buying health insurance is the equivalent of someone with five DUIs, multiple at-fault accidents, and a ferrari trying to purchase car insurance.

[what-the-grump]

So you mean about half my taxes? SS and MC/MA/CHIP are roughly ~50% of federal expense? Why am I paying for grandpa sitting at home retiring and going to the doctor, he should get a job and pay for insurance keeping in mind that the majority of healthcare costs go to cover the aging population?

(What? Too much?)

[martin_a]

Well, you know, at some time in the future, those "healthy young adults" will be the "unhealthy older adults" and other young people will subsidize them then. That's pretty much how those social insurance systems work.

Maybe Americans are missing something to understand that, but it's not socialism or communism if you actually care about all people in the state, no matter how healthy or old they are.

Maybe Americans will understand one day.