Is Individual Health Market Toast?

HealthGuy

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Serious question: With the ridiculous amount of new health coverage spending subsidies in the proposed 'economic stimulous' bill will the individual health market still be here for us even this year and into next? Many just think that it won't matter that Pelosi and Obama are essentially 'socializing healthcare' with massive spending, but how can it NOT effect us? Prove me wrong.....

The proposed expansion of SCHIP, Medicaid 'welfare' for subsidized COBRA benefits, and more federal and state freebies for low income health care (like those who are 200% above poverty line need others to pay for their healthcare?!) Will there be an individual health market left beyond the self employed - who get screwed all the time for actually working and contributing to the tax base - but have to buy their own health insurance. Is the self employed going to be our only market left?

By the way, I don't want to sell to seniors...so lets leave that market out of this discussion.
 
....you seem to be consumed with this. Sell until you can't sell anymore. Simple as that. If you, in your heart, believe it's a waste of time, stop selling now.
 
John: I respect your comments greatly - so no disrespect here - but was trying to narrow down and get simple opinions - what is going to be left of our market when the government gets done paying for the majority of the populations healthcare? Do you forsee pockets we can still sell to in the individual market other than the self employed, or do you see that market becoming welfareized as well? If I can get some good opinions to go on then maybe I will decide to get out. I am pessimistic about the direction of our country, the new nanny state, and make no apologies for it. I am optimistic that if I have a market left to sell to I can make a living.
 
Eventually even the idiots in Washington will figure out they can't pay for everything. They have triggered the mess in the mortgage market which led to the meltdown. Now they are fueling the fires with fake money that will eventually lead to rampant inflation.

Think Keynes.

Keynes contended that aggregate demand for goods might be insufficient during economic downturns, leading to unnecessarily high unemployment and losses of potential output. Keynes argued that government policies could be used to increase aggregate demand, thus increasing economic activity and reducing high unemployment and deflation.

Keynes argued that the solution to depression was to stimulate the economy ("inducement to invest") through some combination of two approaches :

a reduction in interest rates.

Government investment in infrastructure -

the injection of income results in more spending in the general economy, which in turn stimulates more production and investment involving still more income and spending and so forth. The initial stimulation starts a cascade of events, whose total increase in economic activity is a multiple of the original investment.


Any of this sound familiar?

the classical (economists) wanted to balance the government budget. To Keynes, this would exacerbate the underlying problem

In other words, more govt spending is the solution to economic woes.

Keynesian ideas became almost official in social-democratic Europe after the war and in the U.S. in the 1960s.

Social democrats.

Keynes's theory suggested that active government policy could be effective in managing the economy. Rather than seeing unbalanced government budgets as wrong, Keynes advocated what has been called countercyclical fiscal policies, that is policies which acted against the tide of the business cycle: deficit spending when a nation's economy suffers from recession or when recovery is long-delayed and unemployment is persistently high—and the suppression of inflation in boom times by either increasing taxes or cutting back on government outlays. He argued that governments should solve problems in the short run rather than waiting for market forces to do it in the long run, because "in the long run, we are all dead."

Nice guy, huh?

But to answer your question, socialism & Marxism does not work. Ask almost anyone in the know and they will tell you the socialistic policies in Europe are bankrupting their economy.

Especially in the area of health care.

We have rationing here just as they do there. The only difference is, when you as an individual can no longer pay for your health care you are shifted to the taxpayer. But even that only goes so far.

In Europe you rely on the taxpayer to fund your health care until the government decides you have had enough. Then you pay, but only if you have the funds.

So in a way we are mirror images of each other.

Just because the govt's role in funding health care has and is changing doesn't mean everyone will jump on board. Those that want and expect unlimited access to health care will be sorely disappointed and seek to return to the way it was before.

Eventually we will march on Washington, torches and pitchforks in hand, and once again take control.

In the interim, it won't be fun or easy.
 
Its sad the state of our country is in, we let the bankers play with our money, and when they make us go bust or boom, we try to jump to the rhythm they are stringing us along on. then when we cant match their timing, we lose even more money, and then we cry out for help. A flock of sheep will entice wolves. What we need is a revolution in this country.

(dont blame me i voted for ron paul)
 
what is going to be left of our market when the government gets done paying for the majority of the populations healthcare?
They are not even close to paying for the majority.

SCHIP is a joke and is my biggest concern this ridiculous COBRA subsidy that will erode group plans nationwide.

The individual market is not going anywhere.

The agent could get cut out or reduced at some point if we have national guaranteed issue, but that has not happened either.

We could also get hit by an asteroid or alien invasion tomorrow as well - who knows.
 
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TXInsurance: Great post! This is what I am looking for: Will there be a market left for us? Opinions, please!
 
Dimebag - Another indicator Individual is not going away is if you look at the internal infrastructure spending (computer systems, new plans, etc.,) specific to individual plans.

Why would companies be designing new plans and investing millions on a system that is going extinct?

It is clear individual has pushed some boundaries (rescinding, denying applicants, waivers) - there will be regulatory change, that is a given, but is the market going away? No way.
 
Tex: You are showing Dimebag "the light"...thanks! Being from Texas, I'm sure you are familiar with Dime.
 
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