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ObamaCare: Dream Turned Nightmare
Posted 07:02 PM ET
Health Reform: Key provisions of the president's health care reform are about to take effect. Don't expect any of it to be pretty.
It turns out that as predicted by health experts, and reported on this page ObamaCare will make health insurance premiums rise rather than fall. This and other unpleasant truths are revealed in a new report from two Republican senators, which charges that "when measured against the administration's own stated goals, the new health law fails to address the top health care concerns of the American people."
Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John Barrasso of Wyoming are the only two members of the U.S. Senate with M.D.s, and their prognosis in the report, titled "Bad Medicine: a Check-up on the New Federal Health Law," is far from good.
"Independent experts have found that the new health law will increase the cost of health insurance and health care services," the two doctor-senators say, noting the Congressional Budget Office concludes that "premiums for millions of American families in 2016 will be 10%-13% higher than they otherwise would be. This represents a $2,100 increase per family, compared with the status quo."
Two thousand dollars more? Did something hidden in the 3,000 pages of the ObamaCare bill, which the White House and leading congressional Democrats moved heaven and earth to get passed, make those evil health insurers even greedier?
Or is it greedy Uncle Sam? As the senators point out, "According to an April 2010 memo from the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the medical device and pharmaceutical drug fees and the health insurance excise tax will generally be passed through to health consumers in the form of higher drug and device prices and higher insurance premiums, with an associated increase in overall national health expenditures."
Add to that the fact that according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, much of ObamaCare's new taxes will trickle down and end up being paid for by health care consumers. These include "the $60 billion tax on health plans, the $20 billion tax on medical devices and the $27 billion tax on prescription drugs." Makes you wonder which party is on the side of the little guy.
One way premiums will increase is through Americans' making rational economic decisions when faced with higher health costs or the paying of a penalty something perhaps unjustly described as "gaming the system." ObamaCare, it turns out, is a system begging to be gamed.
"Premiums will increase because the new health law contains new federally-mandated rating rules that will cause premium costs for younger Americans to spike dramatically," the Coburn-Barrasso report says. The half of the uninsured aged 19-34 will be faced with the choice of "a financial penalty for not purchasing health insurance" or having to buy "health insurance that is more expensive than the status quo."
Twenty-somethings are discriminated against under ObamaCare. "Insurance for younger Americans will be more expensive because of new rating rules in the law that allow a smaller difference between the premiums an insurance company can charge a younger person compared with an older person," the report points out.
"Unsurprisingly, independent actuaries and private sector experts estimate that, in most states, premiums for the youngest third of the population could increase by 35% under the new tight age bands under the law."
That's just one of a series of ObamaCare negatives highlighted by the report, including: 16 million forced into the going-broke Medicaid system, which many doctors avoid like the plague; a free ride for illegal immigrants, with citizens paying their costs; criminalization of the uninsured, with possible IRS harassment on the way; and millions losing the health plans they now enjoy "as employers either drop coverage or purchase more expensive, government-dictated health insurance."
America has had the best health system in the world. Its flaws are directly attributable to government interfering in the free flow of private services a forced employer-based system, prohibiting interstate insurance, etc. Making the system better was always a worthy dream, but by expanding government instead of freedom, the dream has been made into the nightmare now beginning.
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My freaking insurance went up 20% last month because of Obamacare.
