[KetoManx64]

How do you know that Obamacare isn't the thing that's causing insurance to go up across the board?

If everyone is ensured, no matter the pre-existinf conditions, people take more risks, live more dangerously, drive a little faster, eat a bit worse, etc. Nobody ever talks about the hidden consequences of these oh so wonderful government programs.

[test6554]

Socialized healthcare systems tend to create stigma around peoples unhealthy choices. It no longer is harming just your health and wallet. It is costing society money.

This creates an incentive to pass laws prohibiting products and lifestyles deemed unhealthy.

[consteval]

Privatized healthcare has the opposite incentive, whereby unhealthy choices may be ignored or even encouraged because they're a money-making opportunity.

[KetoManx64]

It turns into this endless cycle of "we need to ban this and ban this and ban this" and never looking at the actual cause of the problem. Just the government creating more work for itself and creating more laws to control people's actions.

I think the stigma point is definitely true, but it's not doing anything to improve things. Obeise people are looked down at by society, but in the US 70% of the population is obese and the number just keeps growing. The natural incentive system is broken by government programs. Why should I bother eating healthy and limit my diet when I can just get health insurance when I get diabetes?

[smileysteve]

For 1, because my private health insurance premiums had doubled (ignoring switching plans for new teaser rates) the years before the ACA was passed.

Anecdotally, when the ACA marketplace went live, and I purchased individually, my health insurance costs decreased for a year (no subsidy)

[KetoManx64]

Obamacare was talked about for YEARS before it was passed, I don't think it would be far fetched to imagine that the insurance companies started raising prices as soon as the topic started getting traction. It's a multi trillion dollar industry after all and they spend big $$$ on analysts to plan for the future.

Of course the price went down after Obamacare got passed. Can you imagine how much outrage there would have been if it had passed and everyone found out that it was going to cost them double or triple what they used to pay? The government took out some loans (using your future and your children's future taxes as collateral) and made sure they were lower. And then a year or two later when everyone stopped focusing on it and it had gotten normalized they stopped propping it up.

[ceejayoz]

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-spe... - see the chart labeled "Total national health expenditures, US $ per capita, 1970-2022".

We've been seeing healthcare costs (and premiums, which largely have to match those) go up in pretty much a straight line since at least 1970.

[KetoManx64]

Thanks for the share. I imagine the costs has a high correlation with the American obeisity epidemic, which has continued to get worse and worse. Obamacare creates a disincentive for people to live and eat a healthy lifestyle. Why bother eating a good diet when you can just get health insurance anyways no matter your pre-existing conditions (be they natural, or much more likely, due to your lifestyle choices).

Eg: 90-95% of diabetes cases in the US are Type 2 (Lifestyle related)

[pixelatedindex]

I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say people are unhealthy because insurance is cheaper. The average person does not live in a way they want to harm themselves.

I would say it’s because most Americans don’t walk or bike much, food desserts are plenty, transit infrastructure sucks, overworking, and lack of time for vacation/self-care all contribute.

You are forced to have a job if you expect typical medical coverage, and making people do something they don’t want to do won’t incentivize them to take care of their health.

[pas]

> Nobody ever talks about the hidden consequences of these oh so wonderful government programs.

Are you ok? Did you just wake up from a coma and suffering from some selective amnesia? Have you been living under a rock? Maybe you missed any and all libertarian content? Or the articles about how safety precautions give a sense of safety which result in more risky behaviors? (From bicycle helmets to OSHA stuff.) But maybe you have ran into articles about how car safety standards act as a birth-rate suppressor? No?

Spare us this "why nobody thinks of the consequences".

Premiums are going up because healthcare costs are going up, because there's a growing number of elderly, also because all services related costs are going up. (Because the Baumol effect, and so on.) Not to mention that as economic surplus grows (ie. GDP grows) people are willing and able to spend more on healthcare.

...

Check veterinary service costs and pet insurance premiums. Obama did that too?