Financing of Health Reform

Well, not sure on this one....everything I read points towards a new tax on the wealthy, and surcharges on very "rich" plan designs or "cadillac" type insurance plans.

I wish the republicans and democrats could work out a truce, but that seems highly unlikely. We sell individual health plans, and small group plans all day long, and the same things are discussed with consumers of ours on the phone every day. We need a system where the healthy and the sick are insured all together, therefor providing affordable benchmark plans. The problem is the healthly folks who do not want to pay for insurance plans (who can blame them, they feel they do not "need" it right now) are not in the bigger pool, as such, the sick are left with high claims and not enough overall "premium" to fund the expenses. Then if the healthy become "sick" they then want to be able to jump in to the "pool" because now they need it...that's the GOTCHA, then any carrier in it's right mind "net's" those folks with medical underwriting to prevent folks adversely selecting against them. I have heard and seen this as long as I have been in this business, and that has been quite some time now. I think we need to have a mandate of coverage, similar to driving car without insurance coverage, and penalties alike, to get everyone sick or healthy in the "boat" together, as well as disbanding many of the federal and state mandated benefits, so we have a la carte coverage. If I want no Rx, no doc visits, just hospital (not even mental health) for myself and my family, give it to me - but do not charge me more than 200/mos for it, because that is really what this stuff should cost.