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Pure political grandstanding, and it may help him slightly in the primaries, but I can't see where it will help him at all in the general election.
Of course, the dirty little secret of the insurance racket is that the only reason someone as rich as Mitt is even needs insurance is so that he won't be socked with the full price that the uninsured are charged in the current system, but which no insurance provider comes even close to having to pay.
Is this posting meant to get people to attack and insult someone with more money than than most of us have?
No. My posting had two parts. The first was pointing out that I think politically Mitt's decision to forgo Medicare is not going to be helpful to him in the long run. It might get him a few more primary votes, but it will cost him a few votes in the general election, if he is the nominee.
The second was a diatribe about the health insurance industry. Mitt is rich enough that in any equitable insurance market with no taxpayer subsidies for employer-provided insurance (I presume he still is getting his insurance from his time at Bain) and no broken price structures (the sticker price the uninsured are charged can be as much as four times the cost an insurance company pays for the exact same treatment) he would be in an excellent position to self-insure. Even a catastrophic health event would not put him in financial peril, so under an equitable insurance market, he would find it financially beneficial to be uninsured as the expected value of what he would have to pay would be greater than the cost of his premiums.
Instead, because of the double whammy of subsidies and a gimmicked table of charges, it is cheaper to buy insurance than to pay for it himself. Under our current system, the only people for whom it makes sense to go uninsured are those with no chronic conditions (i.e., no reason to see the doctor regularly) and so few assets that if they do get stuck with one of those inflated medical bills for an unexpected emergency, they have no consequences from filing bankruptcy and so won't paying the sticker price that the insurance companies never pay.
Well I don't want to see him or anyone struggle financially. I think it's proof that these programs don't make anyone successful even if they are important for society as a safety net. Car insurance works the same way though. If you're never in an accident, you end up paying monthly and getting nothing out of it. Fannie and freddie didn't have consequences for filing for bankruptcy either. Most wealthy companies don't because the government comes to their rescue the same as it comes to the rescue of the poor. Things go both ways. Have you ever heard of a president on medicare?
