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Comment by jordanpg | Hacker News Reader

I don't know much about the politics or economics of the health insurance industry, but I'm pretty sure if you're posting on HN, you're not part of the group the law was enacted to help. It was never claimed that it would make healthcare cheaper or better for everyone. We have options.

Yes, I'm sure there are some true rags to riches stories around here; but we're talking about right now. I am grateful and lucky to have the background and skills to be able to take for granted that I can afford health insurance. Moreover, since it's not socialized, I'm happy to pay for it. I don't worry about finding bottom dollar on this particular thing.

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Wow is this ever wrong. Guaranteed issue is an enormous win for entrepreneurs. When you work for your own tiny company, you obtain insurance on the individual private market. Prior to the ACA and its guaranteed issue rule, insurers routinely denied coverage to family members based on cryptic "DO NOT COVER" condition lists. Coverage denial didn't merely mean the insurer wouldn't cover a particular worrisome condition (which is bad enough) --- it was a blanket denial of any coverage at all.

Young male entrepreneurs didn't run into this problem because they were male, which conveniently dodges more than half of the "DO NOT COVER" list, and because they usually don't yet have families. But cross 30, get married, have a kid, time travel back to 2007 and try to insure your family. You'll see, like I did, how helpful the ACA is for startup founders.

Fair enough. I was responding to commenters that I felt were being glibly dismissive of the ACA. I am a strong supporter of it for a number of reasons.

And if you own or work for a startup, are under 27, and have middle-class-or-richer parents, you obviously benefit as well.

I don't really understand this comment. If you're posting on HN you probably care about startups. And generally, startups don't or can't provide health insurance to their early employees. Which leaves the startup game to the very young and very healthy. The ability for everyone else to have the opportunity to leave their existing job (aka healthcare source) and strike out on their own should surely increase due to this.

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