zab, I tend to be in your camp on most of these issues. Like you, I am uninsurable because I have one of the three "A's". In my case it is arthritis. The other two are asthma and arteriosclerosis. If you have one of these conditions, forget about individual health insurance. They won't touch you. There are, of course, many other conditions, such as cancer, which render you uninsurable. And I personally think that everyone in the country must have medical insurance, by law. I have heard arguments which say that people can opt out of manditory car insurance by simply opting out of driving. That's fine. But until we, as a society, are willing to turn people away at the front door of an emergency room after they are in a major car wreck then, yes, it should be manditory for that healthy 23 year old male who is never sick, and therefore doesn't need insurance, to have coverage. Because, if he doesn't, then we all, as a society, pay for his $200,000 treatment when he has that wreck....in the form of higher premiums to offset these hospital pro bono cases.
For anyone over 55 (since all of us have a pre-existing condition of some kind), the availability of health insurance (at any price) is a real issue. I managed to retire at 61, but only because my wife went back to work at the University of Cincinnati. If not for that, there was no way I could have done it because of my pre-existing condition. Like you, I spent many nights wondering what to do. If I retired without insurance, my concern was not with the costs related to my "condition", which are relatively minor. My concern was with the potentially disasterous expenses resulting from something else, i.e. a car wreck, heart attack, cancer, etc.
I'm sure this health bill is not complete and will have a lot of bumps along the road, but it's a start. And I too believe it will, in the long run, lead to better lives for all Americans.
AI
