Obama's Health Plan

Under Obama's health insurance plan insurance companies couldn't bar customers or charge higher rates to customers who have preexisting conditions. Also, Obama wouldn't force anyone to buy health insurance.

On Meet the Press today Obama was asked about whether his plan would cause people to wait until they were sick to buy health insurance.

Let's say there is a 20% chance you will get sick this next year. If you only buy insurance if you do get sick you avoid having to pay for health insurance 80% of the time. But if enough people use this strategy health insurance prices would skyrocket.

Obama defended himself by saying that there might be some kind of penalty for people who wait until they are sick before buying insurance. But such a penalty would mean little to the millions of Americans in there early twenties who have no assets since they couldn't pay much of a penalty. Similarly, middle class Americans without a house or savings would probably be better off not buying health insurance until they got sick because they too couldn't be forced to pay much of a penalty. Obama's health insurance plan, therefore, would likely increase the number of people who didn't have insurance.