value of planning ahead and private insurance when it's in their favor to buy it. We need to recover that reinstruction of people in how to save themselves from the bad times by planning during the good times.
It will be a giant root canal. Legislation and insurance companies are bunk buddies. In 1980, from my perspective, things were normal. Then came the incurable Herpes hysteria and on the heels of that Aids. There was talk of quarantine and at the same time the homosexuals were refusing to discontinue use of bath houses.
(See the movie "The Ritz" for bathhouse instruction) At first there were no medicines and the costs/payouts were off the actuary charts. Insurance companies were taking a big hit, and the govt. was doing
nothing (civil rights) to stop the spread of the disease. The InsCos said if things continued the way they were going they would all go bankrupt. There was legislation, backed by the AMA, that (naturally) regulated much more than necessary. (my orthopedic said,"if I can't practice medicine the way I think best I'll quit." And he did) The purpose of the legislation was to create a way for insurance companies to stay solvent and for aids patients to receive help.
This was the beginning of the govt/ins social engineering alliance.Within two years employers who had previously offered top of the line, plus dental, plus glasses, plus chiropractor, were now offering "the new and improved" (never heard of before) HMO's and PPL's.*
Government must be forced to get out of the insurance business and insurance must be constructed/regulated in such a way that one can afford the payments. The way things are contrived today, unless you are the valuable employee of a big corporation, the cost of illness can price you out of a job. If you historically had an individual policy you can within a year be priced out of your ability to pay. The genesis of this structuring was the aids crisis legislation I do believe.
Correcting this gross mismanagement will be extremely difficult, fighting liberals and doing it successfully it will be impossible.
*Yes, HMO legislation was a Kennedy legislation passed in the 1970's; however, it was in marginal use until the insurance company threat and new legislation passed.