Health Reform: Don't Hate the Playa, Hate the Game

Various sources are imagining what the world is going to look like if the rules of this health reform get gamed by us ingenious average folk.  The game?  Not ever getting health insurance until you're already seriously ill.  You see, the mandate takes the form of a penalty that is cheaper than paying for health insurance, and the new rules (starting in 2014, for some reason) will prevent insurers from rejecting you for pre-existing illness.  So theoretically, you could just pay the penalty (paying out of pocket for physicals and drugs) and then only get health insurance when you need it.  That seems to be the most financially-sound way to play the system.

Amazingly, the biggest incentive this law creates is for healthy people to NOT BUY health insurance.  Talk about unintended consequences!