For the many millions of people who are insured today thanks primarily to the ACA, the economic impact includes:
* Access to preventative care that keeps them out of the ER, where the expense of their care is maximized
* Financial contribution to their care, rather than the previous expectation that they would simply default on gigantic medical bills or go bankrupt, in either case leaving everyone else in the market to absorb their costs
* The availability of guaranteed-issue insurance on the individual market reduces job-lock and, for us in particular, makes it possible to start companies without worrying about how to secure insurance for our families. Health insurance has been a top 5 issue for the founders I've talked to about it (obviously, myself included).
The thing you need to remember about risk pools and denial of coverage is that health insurers can't deny health services to people, only insurance coverage. For a variety of reasons, including the fact that insurers have collusive secret pricing deals with health care chains, but also the fact that acute health care is just crazy expensive to provide, almost anyone who doesn't have insurance will simply be bankrupted by medical events without coverage. When that happens, it's not like we don't pay for it; it's just that our insurance companies get to dodge a bullet that we collectively have to take for them.
* Access to preventative care that keeps them out of the ER, where the expense of their care is maximized
* Financial contribution to their care, rather than the previous expectation that they would simply default on gigantic medical bills or go bankrupt, in either case leaving everyone else in the market to absorb their costs
* The availability of guaranteed-issue insurance on the individual market reduces job-lock and, for us in particular, makes it possible to start companies without worrying about how to secure insurance for our families. Health insurance has been a top 5 issue for the founders I've talked to about it (obviously, myself included).
The thing you need to remember about risk pools and denial of coverage is that health insurers can't deny health services to people, only insurance coverage. For a variety of reasons, including the fact that insurers have collusive secret pricing deals with health care chains, but also the fact that acute health care is just crazy expensive to provide, almost anyone who doesn't have insurance will simply be bankrupted by medical events without coverage. When that happens, it's not like we don't pay for it; it's just that our insurance companies get to dodge a bullet that we collectively have to take for them.