Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator for that question. Let me point out that preexisting conditions and the individual mandate of ObamaCare are integrally connected because the way the insurance market works--let me take an example that does not deal with health care. Let's talk about fire insurance, fire insurance on your home. I suspect both our homes have fire insurance. Imagine if Congress were to pass a law that says fire insurance companies cannot take into account preexisting conditions, such as whether the home has already burned down in a fire. If that were the law, what any rational person would do--we would both cancel our fire insurance policies because our house had not burned down, and if it did burn down, we could then buy a fire insurance policy and say: Please pay for my house. Under that rule, the whole insurance regime collapses because the entire basis of insurance is you get people whose homes have not burned down to pay relatively small premiums to create a pool of capital that will be used to compensate--we do not know who, but somebody's home is going to burn down. If enough people whose homes have not burned down put in money in premiums, there will be a pool to pay for whichever unlucky soul faces their home burning down. The health insurance market works quite similarly.…”