Death Panels

[angrychair]

I don't think the impending healthcare crisis is being framed in the right context.

With respect to the impending expiration of the ACA subsidies let me be unambiguously clear: this is the death of healthcare as we know it

That isn't hyperbolic. It's not fear mongering. It's reality.

Here is why this is WAY more of a big deal than most have expressed.

It's a death spiral. Slow. Unyielding. Inevitable.

So millions get knocked off Medicare. Millions more drop off the ACA network due to costs.
Those that drop off are the healthier people that decide the risk is low for them and no longer worth the cost involved.
That leaves a smaller pool of people and a higher risk pool of people.
Prices have to go up to account for the smaller pool and higher risk.

More people drop out.

Pool is now smaller and a higher level risk pool.
Prices have to go up to account for the smaller pool and higher risk.

More people drop out.

Rinse. Repeat.

Until it reaches critical mass in which the risk pool is so small no amount of money covers the spread and it implodes under it's own weight.

That isn't hypothetical. In order for the system to work it either needs a mixture of low and higher risk participation or significant offsets to account for the level of risk in the pool of participants.

We are facing a healthcare armageddon and once it starts it's spiral it will be all but impossible to stop it.