I think if we want to bash insurance companies, then we just need to ask this: do most people expect to get back more from insurance than they pay over the time they have insurance? If not, then why not just self insure, and leave the horrid insurance companies in the lurch? As to the "1% of their income" as a penalty, anyone of us who is even vaguely affluent took a much bigger increase in tax hit than that, and mostly just grumbled about it. As I said earlier, this is not about shared risk, it is about entitlement. Paying for healthcare is not "fun". You don't get to look through color catalogs and go window shopping for that nice shiny new snow machine or whatever. So, when you find that you have a bill for about 30% of what a Skidoo Skandik snow machine costs because you need to get that screening colonoscopy or MRI for your headaches, or whatever, there is a great hue and cry. But no one goes to the snow machine dealer and expect them to sell a machine for 30% of the going rate because they are over 65, or have 5 kids, or dropped out of school and have a lousy job.
Yes, insurance companies are making a killing over this law. If the population did not insist that every twinge get a full workup by a cardiologist, every ache and pain the full head to toe workup, or that little Susie should get the costs of travel to Geneva for treatment of her sadly incurable illness, the problem would not exist.
My attitude is simple and hard: You want it, you pay for it, either up front or in installments through an "insurance" program. Suck it up. Stop whining.
