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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People under 30 can still get catastrophic coverage under ACA if they meet the hardship exemption.  But again, catastrophic coverage plans don't cover many routine things and you are on the hook for all out of pocket expenses until you meet the deductible.[/quote]

And people should be able to make that choice for themselves - without the hardship exemption [/quote]

And again, that ends up being the leading cause of bankruptcy.  That ends up being the leading cause of expensive ER visits.   And guess who ends up actually paying?  The rest of us.[/quote]

What ends up being the leading cause of ER visits?  I'm sorry, but it doesn't matter if you include preventive care, a lot of 20-year-olds aren't going to use it anyhow.  I'm the PP who had (for 6 months) a basic plan I purchased in the private market.  My plan covered emergency visits, by the way.  It also covered serious illness/injury.

It did not cover pregnancy, dental.  Preventive care wasn't free.  But the reality is that even when I had employer provided insurance that covered yearly physicals and full blood workups, I didn't go because I was young, hated needles, hated going to the doctor and put it off.

I'm glad I had the option to purchase basic insurance, because it was better than nothing and got me through in between bouts of not having employer-provided coverage.

Many people, by the way, have insurance coverage for things like yearly pap smears, mamograms, colonoscopies, but they still don't go.  Providing that coverage alone isn't going to change that behavior.  I'm really tired of hearing that argument.  I'm all for those things being covered, but it simply isn't true that bad habits or even a failure to get preventive care is completely due to insurance, especially when you are talking about young people.  Most people don't get serious about preventive care until they experience a scare of some sort or witness a family member or friend go through something.  Newsflash:  A lot of people don't even have the time to take off work to get those things done.

But I disagree with your explanation of bankruptcies.  I think a lot of bankruptcies can still happen because what causes them is that there are so many loopholes and balance billing issues and workarounds insurance companies have to get out of covering things.

ACA hasn't solved a lot of those problems.

I think if you really want to solve that problem (that people can go bankrupt due to a health emergency), singlepayer is the way to go.  What ACA did is it mandated coverage, mandated the type of coverage that had to be provided in a basic plan, and mandated that health insurance companies couldn't refuse people coverage due to risk assessments.  I'm glad the preexisting condition thing was solved.  I do think that helped people.  But it's simply naive to suggest that the insurance companies haven't tried to recoup those costs by charging everyone more.  So the young and healthy are the ones who pay the price for that.

I'm even okay with that concept.  What bothers me is that ACA still didn't solve the issue of balance billing and people going bankrupt over health care.  And there still is little in the way of transparency with insurance coverage.  It's very difficult to get straight answers about what is covered.  It's also very difficult in many cases to ensure when you get a procedure done or go to the ER that you will only be seen by in-network providers.  So it's still a convoluted mess.

As I wrote earlier, though, this should be a thread all its own.  [/quote]

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