One thing we could do is allow pre-tax and tax credits for an insurance company taking pre-existings and subsidizing their premium. You could do this with a policy sold across state lines. Also give tax credits to the purchaser, and make all that health care spending pretax. Tack an HSA onto it pre tax or even with tax credits. Yes it's all double dipping but who cares? The problem is the FedGov doesn't want give up that money.
You could even allow exclusions to reduce it ever further and have the pre-existing treated by Medicare. The govt is also going to have to accept that some are not going to fit into the insurance pool and will have to be on Medicare.
As a compromise with liberals, we could have those who can't or won't buy insurance pay a higher Medicare tax equivalent to an insurance premium to keep it properly funded. But we need to keep the insurance pools clean and voluntary.
Without discussing hemophilia, cancer, or dozens of other expensive conditions, there is already a trillion dollar bill coming in for HIV/AIDS infected (currently roughly 1.3 million, at a cost per patient of 600-750K over the next 25 years).
Now you want people to who can't afford insurance because of the mandates present now, to pay taxes out of their paychecks to pay for people who have made (and continue to make) bad decisions (something being promoted daily), and now the system has gone full mark of the beast. Who knew it was an insurance company?
Work for cash, barter, or starve., if you're on the low end of the wage spectrum. If people can't afford health INSURANCE now, how is taxing them
more going to fix that?
No new taxes (Still waiting for THAT promise to happen, GHWB).
Get the Government out, except to provide for the 'wards of the state'.
This crap didn't really happen until the civil union folks found out their partner with 'the thins' couldn't get coverage under their ersatz spouses' health plan at work (preexisting condition), then the Dems came looking for everyone to pick up the tab.
We're more in danger of people dying in the streets than ever because the government is fixing something that supposedly fixed something that wasn't broke.
There is no Constitutional authorization for the Federal Government to be messing around with health insurance/care, with the exception of providing for wounded and disabled veterans, and Indian Tribes per Treaty.
Anyone familiar with those systems would have (and did) hold them up as all the more reason the FedGov should stay out of mainstream health care.