A relative who works in the health insurance industry confirms that people in a group plan are not subject to the same vulnerabilities as those with individual policies. This means that the health insurance debate is not only about the 46 million Americans who have no health insurance at all, but also those who do have individual policies and therefore can be dropped, excluded for pre-existing conditions or have their rates hiked to the skies. So, granted that most people are covered by group plans, that sill leaves a significant portion of the population at great risk for dying or being bankrupted by a health problem.
That's why it's really a moral issue. Should anyone be allowed to die or be financially devastated just because they get sick? America is the only country in the world where this can happen. Even those of us who are covered by group plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, should not rest easy. We have a moral responsibility to care for the population as a whole. That's the idea behind insurance - those who don't need it are paying for those who do need it.
We have an outrageously costly military because it's deemed important that we protect everybody from any possible enemy. We may not need it at any given moment but we pay for it anyway - just in case. Disease and injury are universal and present enemies. We need to design - re-design - our systems to extend that care to everyone. And we could probably pay for it by diverting some of our tax money away from the military - a few planes ships or missiles should do it - in addition to eliminating waste.
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