This might be a dumb question, but why is there an open enrollment period that closes for ACA?

[songbookz]

15. To prevent people from waiting to buy insurance until they get sick

To prevent people from waiting to buy insurance until they get sick. You need plenty of healthy people paying premiums to afford to insure the sick ones.

For example, about 5 years ago and my wife drove me to the hospital, they diagnosed me with pneumonia, heart failure, and high blood pressure. The four day stay cost about $48,000. My premiums at the time were about $450 (a lot of it paid by the ACA subsidy, so. it would take 107 months worth of premiums just to pay for that visit or 107 people paying premiums without going to the hospital. To hvae allowed me to wait and buy insurance on the way to the hospital would bankrupt the system because most people would do that'