OPT OUT: Do you support the right for anyone to be able to OPT OUT of private insurance?

[yurbud]

Congress has talked about an ''opt out'' for states as a way to get conservatives (republicans and blue dogs) on board. Shouldn't there be a way for individuals to ''opt out'' of for-profit, service denying, life-taking, family bankrupting private insurance?

[stray cat]

1. Yes - they should be able to sign a waver indicating they want No Medical Intervention

If you don't want medical intervention under any circumstance you should be able to opt out.

[MattBaggins]

5. See I agree with this

We need a public option and alternative choice but I am not that opposed to mandatory insurance. The system needs to be fair and the costs should be no more than 10% or so of you income. If you opt out of a fair and reasonable public insurance and you are in a car accident and dieing along side the road; the paramedics should leave you there and notify your next of kin to come collect your body.

Well at a minimum if you refuse insurance and use the ER; you should not be able to declare bankruptcy. Even your 401k and retirement should be up for grabs. I am willing to do my part and help out but selfish bastards who want to have no insurance at all and then whine and cry for bankruptcy so they can pass the cost on to me anyway; can kiss my ass.

Healthy public option.
Regulations to bring the vampire insurance companies in line.
Mandatory insurance if the other two factors are in place.

Then again I would like to see the German model in place.

Oh yeah a living wage so people could afford decent insurance.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. A personal opt out provision is part of the bill. Just don't buy insurance.

Though that probably isn't exactly responsible for people with dependents.

[Mojambo]

10. Are you not then fined some amount? n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

11. Taxes are taken for those that don't want to pay for any health care cost

they incur.

The only possible opt out would be for anyone opting out to require that they never receive any medical care and, should there be an accident, they be allowed to die on the side of the road in pain. Since that is inherently immoral, what would you suggest.

People who don't provide for their own medical insurance are simply betting that they are (a) healthy; and (b) will not have an accident. If they lose the bet, they are comforted knowing that everyone else paying taxes and health care payments will cover them.

Maybe requiring those that wish to opt out of insurance set aside a $100,000.00 bond in the event of a health care emergency might work, though a $1,000,000.00 would be better, since a real health care emergency can eat through a piddly $100,000.00 in a few weeks or less.

By all means, individuals should opt out. But they should still be responsible for paying for the bet they make, so the rest of us aren't responsible for their gambling debt.

[yurbud]

15. the point was opt out of private insurance and INTO a public option. oy.

[sharp_stick]

3. Sure as long as you don't mind

paying your own way do what you want. If you can afford insurance through one of the plans available, with or without subsidy, and choose not to partake there should be no problem to your wages being picked apart, losing your house, declaring bankruptcy and being hounded for the rest of your life to pay for the lifesaving heart surgery you suddenly find you need.

I'd much rather see single payer, and I really hope I see it during my lifetime, but right now I'll take any kind of positive movement away from what is right now the most pathetic health care system in the developed world.

[yurbud]

7. I haven't seen much on two key issues to prevent abuses by private insurance:

the ability to deny claims (and therefore treatment)

control of the cost of premiums and how much of the income from premiums is kept for overhead like profit, exec compensation, and the operators you call who deny your claim.

[debbierlus]

20. Then I take it you don't support this legislation, as it is the enshrinement of the most pathetic

Health care system in the world...

The public option is a myth - a program that will only cover 2% of the population and most likely be administered BY private health insurance companies hired by the government. The policies are estimated to cost MORE then private insurance.

This is a 70 billion dollar subsidy to force Americans to enslave their health to private insurance who still may deny coverage for any reason other then a preexisting condition plus charge DOUBLE the policy rate for preexisting condition people.

This is a move to create this as the standard for our health system, not a move away from it.

[derby378]

4. Careful...

...you may stir up the authoritarian types who want you enslaved to Big Insurance for the next 30 years.

[MercutioATC]

6. Opting out isn't viable.

We don't let people die in the streets. Those without insurance WILL be treated...at public expense.

Unless there's a mandate that people be covered (by either a public or private plan) the system is unworkable.

[yurbud]

8. opt out of private and INTO public option

this more a rhetorical argument--using the corporate democrats frame against them.

[RadiationTherapy]

9. I like how you phrase the second option.

It's like you wore black face and wrote like a 'nigger'. Clever.

[yurbud]

14. see reply #13. You intentionally missed the point.

[yurbud]

19. If we are trapped letting our employers choose our health insurance for us, what are we being

treated like?

[philly_bob]

12. UNREC for insensitive use of dialect, without apparent purpose /nt

[yurbud]

13. to harken back to slavery when a worker's life was LITERALLY in hands of their employer (master)?

[philly_bob]

21. I see your intent, yurbud. That 'massa' dialect stuff is not something I'd use. /nt

[Shagbark Hickory]

16. Employers shouldn't provide insurance. It's just another way for them to grab you by the balls. nt

[yurbud]

17. exactly

[yurbud]

18. it's odd that those who voted in the poll got it, but many who posted replies either don't or

pretend they don't.

It's turning around a Blue Dog/Republican talking point to make it support the public option, not a call for people to trust in faith healing or something.